FOURTH  BIENNIAL  SESSION 


OF  THE 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE 


OF 


JEWISH  CHARITIES 


in  the  United   States 


HELD  IN  THE  CITY  OF  PHILADELPHIA 


May  6tk  to   8tk,   1906 


NEW  YORK 

PRESS  OF  STETTINER  BROS.,  52-58  Duane  St. 
1907 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Officers,   1904-1906    5 

Officers,   1906-1908    6 

Constitution    7 

Membership  of  the  Conference 9 

Register  of  Delegates 16 

Program 19 

OPENING  SESSION— 

Address    of    Welcome,    William     B.    Hackenburg,     President 
Jewish  Hospital  Association,   Philadelphia 21 

Address  of  Judge  Julian  W.    Mack,    President    of    the    Con- 
ference         24 

Report  of  the  Committee    on    Distribution,    Cyrus    L.    Sulz- 

berger    39 

MONDAY  MORNING  SESSION— 

Report  of  Committee  on  Desertion,  Dr.  Lee  K.  Prankel 46 

Discussion:   Michel  Heyman,  New  Orleans  57 

The  President   57 

Miss  Miriam  Kalisky,  Chicago   57 

.     Mr.   Zunser    58 

Simon  Wolf,  Washington   59 

Miss  Gertrude  Berg,  Philadelphia   59 

Max  Herzberg,  Philadelphia  60 

Dr.  Max  Landsberg,  Rochester  Cl 

iMrs.   Pisko,  Denver   62 

Solomon  Lowenstein,  New  York  63 

Persistency  of  Dependence  as  Indicated  by  Relief  Statistics: 

Dr.  Boris  D.  Bogen,  Cincinnati,  0 63 

Discussion:   Morris  Jacoby,  New  York   71 

The   President    72 

Miss  Sadie  American,  New  York  73 

Max  Herzberg,  Philadelphia 73 

Dr.  Jacob  Hollander,  Baltimore    73 

Max  Senior,  Cincinnati    74 

MONDAY  AFTERNOON  SESSION— 

Placing  Out  of  Jewish  Children: 

Dr.  Ludwig  B.  Bernstein,  New  York 75 

The  English  and  German  Cottage  Plan  for  the  Care  of  Or- 
phans:  Rabbi  Simon  Peiser,  Cleveland 89 

Discussion  of  the  Cottage  Plan  from  the  Architectural  Point 
of  View:  Charles  H.  Israels,  New  York 93 

Jewish  Delinquent  Children: 

Falk  Younker,  New  York . .  f 99 

Homes  for  Working  Girls: 

(Miss  Rose  Sommerf eld,  New  York 105 

Discussion:     Dr.  Henry  Berkowitz,   Philadelphia 113 

Mrs.   Galland,   Wilkes-Barre 114 

A.  R.  Levy,  Chicago  114 

Mrs.  Charles  Israels,  New  York 115 

Mrs.  Max  Landsberg,  Rochester 116 

Miss  Sadie  American,  New  York 117 

The    President 118 

Miss   Sommerfeld    120 

TUESDAY  MORNING  SESSION— 

State  Aid  to  Sectarian  Institutions: 

Prof.  Morris  Loeb,  New  York 120 

Statistics  of  Institutional   Management 130 

Home  for  the  Aged  and  Infirm:    Michel  Heyman,  New  Orleans.  130 


2114394 


Institutions  for  Children:  PAGE 

Solomon  Lowenstein,  New  York 133 

Discussion:    W.  B.  Hackenburg,  Philadelphia 144 

Discussion  on  Papers  of  Messrs.  Bernstein,  Israels,  and  Lowen- 
stein:    Max  Mitchell,  Boston,  Mass 144 

Arnold   Cohen,   Philadelphia 145 

S.  M.  Fleischman,  Philadelphia 146 

Jacob  Bashein,  New   York 146 

R.  A.  Sonn,  Atlanta,  Ga 148 

Dr.   Boris  D.   Bogen,   Cincinnati 149 

Dr.   Jacob  Hollander,   Baltimore 149 

Dr.  A.  R.  Levy,  Chicago 150 

W.  B.  Hackenburg,  Philadelphia 150 

Max  Senior,  Cincinnati    151 

Leo  Loeb,  Philadelphia  152 

Dr.  L.  B.  Bernstein,  New  York 153 

The  President   155 

TUESDAY  AFTERNOON  SESSION— 

The  Baron  De  Hirsch  Fund: 

Eugene  S.  Benjamin,  New  York 156 

Plan  of  Agricultural  Settlement: 

A.  W.  Rich,   Milwaukee 170 

Agriculture,  a  Most  Effective  Means  in  Adjusting  the   Com- 
promised Economic  Conditions  of  the  Jewish  Poor: 
Rabbi  A.  R.  Levy,  Chicago , 181 

Possibilities  for  Agricultural  Settlements  in  the  South: 

Dr.  I.  L.  Leucht,  New  Orleans 189 

Agricultural  Education: 

Rabbi  Joseph  Krauskopf,  Philadelphia 195 

Dr.  H.  L.  Sabsovich,  New  York 203 

Discussion:    Rabbi  A.  R.  Levy,  Chicago 211 

A.  W.   Rich,   Milwaukee 213 

TUESDAY  EVENING  SESSION— 

Treatment  of  Consumptives  in  Their  Homes: 

Dr.  F.  L.  Wachenheim,  New  York 213 

Local  Sanatoria: 

Dr.  Theodore  B.  Sachs,  Chicago 220 

Care  of  Advanced  Cases  of  Pulmonary  Tuberculosis: 

Dr.  C.  D.  Spivak,  Denver,  Colo 229 

Sanatoria  for  Consumptives: 

Alfred  'Muller,  Denver,  Colo 234 

Discussion:    Miss  Annie  Hillkowitz,  Denver 240 

Samuel   Grabfelder,  Louisville 241 

The   President    242 

Mrs.  Seraphine  Pisko,  Denver 242 

Dr.  S.  Splis  Cohen,  Philadelphia 243 

Dr.   Louis   Jurist,   Philadelphia 248 

BUSINESS  SESSION— 

Report  from  Committee  on  Resolutions 249 

Report  from  Committee  on  Nominations 251 

Retiring  Address  of  President: 

Judge  Julian  W.  Mack,  Chicago 252 

APPENDIX  A. 

Report  of  Committee  on  Membership 257 

APPENDIX  B. 

Report  of  Committee  on  Jewish  Sufferers  from  San  Francisco 

Earthquake     .   262 


OFFICERS  1904-06. 

President. 

JULIAN  W.  MACK.  CHICAGO,  ILL. 

« 

Vice-Presidents. 

BERNARD  GINSBURG,  DETROIT,  MICH. 
MRS.  JACOB  WIRTH,  ST.  PAUL,  MINN. 

Secretary. 

SOLOMON  LOWENSTEIN,  NEW  YORK. 
137th  Street  and  Amsterdam  Avenue. 

Treasurer. 
OSCAR  H.  ROSENBAUM,  PITTSBURG,  PA. 

Executive  Committee. 

MAX  SENIOR,  CINCINNATI, -OHIO. 

MAX  HESZBERG,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 

NATHAN  BIJUR,  NEW  YORK. 

PROF.  JACOB  H.  HOLLANDER,  BALTIMORE,  MD. 

DR.  ISAAC  L.  LEUCHT,  NEW  ORLEANS.  LA. 

A.  W.  RICH,  MILWAUKEE,  Wis. 

DR.  SAMUEL  SALE,  ST.  Louis,  Mo. 


OFFICERS  1906-08. 

President. 
NATHAN  BIJUR,  NEW  YORK. 

Vice-Presidents. 

BERNARD  GINSBURG,  DETROIT,  MICH. 

MRS.  EMMA  ECKHOUSE,  INDIANAPOLIS,  IND. 

Secretary. 

SOLOMON  LOWENSTEIN,  NEW  YORK, 
137th  Street  and  Amsterdam  Avenue. 

Treasurer. 
BERNARD  GREENSFELDER,  ST.  Louis,  Mo. 

Executive  Committee. 

MAX  SENIOR,  CINCINNATI,  OHIO. 
MAX  HERZBERG,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 
JULIAN  W.  MACK,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 
MRS.  JULIUS  ANDREWS,  BOSTON,  MASS. 
SAMUEL  S.  FLEISHER,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 
PROF.  JACOB  H.  HOLLANDER,  BALTIMORE,  MD. 
VICTOR  H.  KRIEGSHABER,  ATLANTA,  GA. 
MARTIN  A.  MARKS,  CLEVELAND,  O. 


CONSTITUTION 

OF  THE 

National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


ARTICLE  I.-NAME. 

This  association  shall  be  known  as  the  National  Conference 
of  Jewish  Charities  in  the  United  States. 

ARTICLE  II.— OBJECTS. 

The  objects  of  this  association  are  to  discuss  the  problems  of 
charities  and  to  promote  reforms  in  their  administration ;  to  pro- 
vide uniformity  of  action  and  co-operation  in  all  matters  pertain- 
ing to  the  relief  and  betterment  of  the  Jewish  poor  of  the  United 
States,  without,  however,  interfering  in  any  manner  with  the  local 
work  of  any  constituent  society. 

ARTICLE  III. — MEMBERSHIP  AND  DUES. 

SEC.  1.  Any  regularly  organized  Jewish  Society  of  the 
United  States  having  charitable  and  philanthropic  purposes  may 
become  a  member  of  the  association  on  application  made  to  the 
Secretary  and  on  payment  of  the  membership  dues. 

SEC.  2.  The  annual  membership  dues  for  each  society  shall 
be  one-tenth  of  one  per  cent  of  the  amount  expended  by  it  for  its 
corporate  purposes  during  the  preceding  year,  not  less,  however. 
than  $5.00  nor  more  than  $50.00.  Such  dues  shall  be  payable 
February  1st  of  each  year. 

SEC.  3.  Each  constituent  society  shall  be  entitled  to  one 
delegate,  but  may  appoint  as  many  as  it  sees  fit  to  attend  the  bien- 
nial meeting.  All  such  delegates  shall  be  entitled  to  participate 
in  said  meeting,  but  each  society  shall  have  but  one  vote. 

SEC.  4.  Each  constituent  society  shall  certify  to  the  Secre- 
tary on  or  before  January  1st  of  each  year  the  amount  of  its 
expenditures  for  its  corporate  purposes  during  the  preceding 
fiscal  year. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES. 

ARTICLE  IV.— OFFICERS. 

SEC.  1.  The  officers  of  the  Conference  shall  be  a  President, 
two  Vice-Presidents,  a  Treasurer  and  a  Secretary,  who  with  five 
other  elective  members  and  all  ex-presidents  ex  officio,  shall  con- 
stitute the  Executive  Committee.  Officers  shall  be  elected  by 
ballot  at  the  biennial  meeting,  and  shall  hold  office  two  years  and 
until  their  successors  are  elected  and  inducted. 

SEC.  2.  Vacancies  in  any  of  the  offices  provided  in  Section  1 
of  this  Article  may  be  filled  for  the  unexpired  portion  of  the 
term  of  office  at  any  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee. 

ARTICLE'  V.— DUTIES  OF  OFFICERS. 

SEC.  1.  The  officers  of  this  Conference  shall  perform  the  du- 
ties usually  incumbent  upon  such  officers,  and  shall  submit  a  re- 
port at  the  biennial  meeting. 

SEC.  2.  The  Executive  Committee  shall  transact  the  business 
of  the  Conference  in  the  interim  between  the  biennial  meetings. 
It  shall  arrange  for  the  biennial  meeting ;  and  have  the  power  to 
appoint  regular  and  special  committees. 

SEC.  3.  The  Executive  Committee  shall  meet  at  the  call  of 
the  President,  or  at  the  request  of  three  members.  Four  members 
shall  constitute  a  quorum. 

SEC.  4.  When  the  Executive  Committee  is  not  in  session  it 
may,  by  majority  vote  of  its  members  acting  individually,  au- 
thorize any  action  first  submitted  in  writing  to  each  of  them. 

ARTICLE  VI. -MEETINGS. 

SEC.  1.  This  Conference  shall  meet  biennially  at  such  place 
and  time  as  the  Executive  Committee  shall  designate. 

SEC.  2.  Delegates  representing  fifteen  constituent  societies 
shall  constitute  a  quorum  at  such  biennial  meetings. 

ARTICLE  VII.— AMENDMENTS. 

This  constitution  may  be  amended  at  any  biennial  meeting 
by  a  majority  vote  of  the  societies  represented,  provided  notice  of 
the  proposed  amendment  shall  have  been  mailed  to  all  the  constit- 
uent societies  at  least  sixty  days  prior  to  such  meeting;  or  it 
may  be  amended  at  any  time  by  a  majority  vote  of  all  the  con- 
stituent societies.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee to  submit  all  proposed  amendments. 


MEMBERSHIP 

National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


NAME    OF    SOCIETY 

Albany,  N.  Y Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Dr.  M.  Scbles- 

inger,  Secty.,  334  Hudson  Ave. 
Alexandria,  Va.   .  . .  .Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mr.  N.  Woll- 

berg,  Secty. 
Atlanta,  Ga Federation    of    Jewish    Charities,    V.    H. 

Kriegshaber,  Pres.,  8  N.  Forsyth  St. 
Atlanta,  Ga Hebrew  Orphan  Home,  Max  Cohen,  Seety. 

and  Treas.,  509'  7th  St.,  N.  W.,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 
Baltimore,  Md Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mr.  B.  Baro- 

way,  Supt.,  411  W.  Fayette  St. 
Birmingham,  Ala.  ..Hebrew    Relief    Society,    Mr.  E.    Lesser 

Pres. 
Bloomington,  111.  .  .  .The  Jewish  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  Mrs.  Oscar 

Mandel,  Secty.,  E.  Washington  St. 
Boston,  Mass Federation     of     Jewish     Charities,     Max 

Mitchell,  Supt.,  Chardon  St. 
Boston,  Mass Hebrew    Women's    Sewing    Society,    Mrs 

Rosa  L.   Frank,    Treas.,   23   Arborway. 

Jamaica  Plain. 
Braddock,  Pa Braddock  Lodge,  No.  516,  I.  O.  B.  B.,  Mr. 

Manuel    Goldwater,    Secty.,    629    Mar- 

garetta  St. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.  ..... ,  Federated  Jewish  Charities,  Mrs.  William 

Elkus,  Supt.,  456  Jefferson  St. 
Butte,  Mont Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mr.  A.  IWehl. 

Secty.,  P.  O.  Box  452. 
Charleston,  S.  C Hebrew   Benevolent    Society,    Mr.   M.   H. 

Nathan,  Secty.  and  Treas.,  168  E.  Bay. 


10  PROCEEDINGS   OF    THE   FOURTH 

Charleston,  W.  Va. . .  Hebrew  Educational  Society,  Mr.  Herbert 

Frankenberger,    Secty.,    630    Kanawha 

Cor.  Summers  St. 
Chattanooga,  Tenn. .  .Mizpah    Congr.      Relief    Society,    Mr.    H 

Goodman,  Jr.,  Pres. 
Chicago,  111 Bureau  of  Personal  Service,  Miss  Minnie 

F.  Low,  Supt,  468  S.  Halsted  St. 
Chicago,  111 Council    of   Jewish    Women,    Miss    Sadie 

American,  Executive  Secretary,  448  Cen- 
tral Park  West,  N.  Y.  City. 

Chicago,  111 Home  of  Jewish  Friendless  Working  Girh 

Chicago,  111 Home  for  Jewish  Orphans,  Mr.  L.  Deutel- 

baum,  Supt.,  62nd  St.  and  Drexel  Ave. 
Chicago,  111 United     Hebrew     Charities,     Mr.     A.     J. 

Pflaum,  Secty.,  223  26th  St. 
Cincinnati,  0 United  Jewish  Charities,  Dr.  Boris  D.  Bo- 

gen,  Supt.,  730  Carlisle  Ave. 
Cleveland,  O The  Federation  of  Jewish  Charities,  Mr.  E. 

M.  Baker,  Secty.,  513  Citizens  Bldg. 

Cleveland,  O Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Mr.  A.  S.  New- 
man, Supt.,  294  AVopdland  Ave. 
Cleveland,  O Jewish  Orphan   Asylum,   Dr.   S.   Wolf  en 

stein,  Supt. 
Colo.  Springs,  Colo.  .Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mr.  N.  Leip- 

heimer,  Secty.,  P.  O.  Box  445. 
Columbus,  0 Jewish  Charities,  Paul  Karger,  Secty.,  333 

Columbus  Savings  and  Trust  Bldg. 
Columbus,  0. Ladies '  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs. 

A.  B.  Cohen,  Secty.,  392  E.  Town  St. 
Cumberland,  Md.  .  .  .Be'er  Chayim  Congr.,  Mr.  Edward  Tanzer. 

Secty. 

Dallas,  Tex Hebrew  Benevolent  Society. 

Dallas,  Tex Congr.    EmanuEl,    Mr.    D.    A.    Eldridge. 

Secty. 
Dayton,  O Dayton  Provident  Union,  Mr.  Sol.  Flatau. 

Secty.,  Reibold  Bldg. 
Denver,  Colo Jewish     Relief     Society,     Miss     Adelaide 

Kaichen,  Supt.,  30  Pioneer  Bldg. 


NATIONAL   CONFERENCE  OF   JEWISH    CHARITIES.  11 

Des  Moines,  la Hebrew  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society,  Rabbi 

Eugene  Manheimer. 
Detroit,  Mich ,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Mr.  A.  Benjamin. 

Secty.,  239  E.  High  St. 
Duluth,  Minn Temple   Aid   Society,   Mrs.   M.    Cornfield. 

Secty. 
El  Paso,  Tex Mt.  Sinai  Congr.,  Mr.  I.  Haas,  Secty.,  care 

of  Lion  Grocery  Co. 
Eivansville,  Ind ^Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs.  M.  Ober- 

dorfer,  Pres.,  624  Locust  St. 
Fort  Wayne,  Ind.  . .  .Hebrew  Relief  Union,  Mr.  Isidor  Lehman. 

Pres. 
Gainesville,  Tex.   . .  United  Hebrew  Congr.,  I.  Cohen,  Secty., 

Church  and  Red  River  Sts. 
Galveston,  Tex.  . ... .  .The  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society. 

Hot  Springs,  Ark.  . .  Hot  Springs  Relief  Society,  Rabbi  A.  B. 

Rhine,  Secty. 
Houston,  Tex Beth  Israel  Relief  Society,  S.  M.  Colman 

Treas.,  1107  Congress  Ave. 

Houston,  Tex The   United  Hebrew  Benevolent   Associa- 
tion, Mrs.  I.  Keller,  Treas. 
Indianapolis.  Ind.   ..Ladies'  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs. 

II.  Marks,  Secty.,  22  W.  Michigan  St. 

Ithaca,  N.  Y Mr.  Jacob  Rothschild. 

Kalamazoo,  Mich.  . .  .Congr.  B'nai  Israel,  Samuel  Folz. 
Kansas  City,  Mo.  . .  .United  Jewish  Charities,  Mr.  Jacob  Billi- 

kopf,  Supt,  1702  Locust  St. 
Kansas  City,  Mo.  . .  .Hebrew  Ladies'  Relief  Association,  Mrs.  II 

Levite,  Pres. 
Lafayette,  Ind Jewish  Ladies '  Aid  Society,  Mrs.  Max  Boin 

Secty.,  604  N.  6th  St. 
Lancaster,  Pa United  Hebrew  Charity  Assoc.,  Mr.  Jonas 

Fox,  Secty.,  123  E.  King  St. 
Lincoln,  Neb The    Jewish    Ladies'    Aid    Society,    Mrs. 

William  Gold,  Secty.,  1225  Hill  St. 

Little  Rock,  Ark.  . . .  Hebrew  Relief  Society,  1419  Louisiana  St. 
Los  Angeles,  Cal.  . .  .Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mr.  N.  Zeisler. 

Secty.,  110  New  Hellman  Block. 


12  PROCEEDINGS   OF    THE   FOURTH 

Louisville,  Ky Congr.  Adath  Israel,  Mr.  M.  Strauss,  Secty. 

Louisville,  Ky United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Mr.  G. 

S.  Rosenberg,  Secty.,  310  E.  Walnut  St. 

Macon,  Ga Congr.  Beth  El,  Mr.  D.  H.  Whitman,  Secty. 

Mattapan,  Mass Leopold    Morse    Home    and    Orphanage, 

Rabbi  Solomon  Schindler,  Supt. 

Memphis,  Tenn The  Hebrew  Ladies'  Relief  Association. 

Memphis,  Tenn United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Dr.  M. 

Samfield,  Pres. 

Meridian,  Miss Meridian  Jewish  Orphans'  Home  and  Ben. 

Association,  Rabbi  Max  Raisin,  Secty. 
Milwaukee,  Wis Hebrew  Relief  Association,  416  Milwaukee 

Street. 
Minneapolis,  Minn.  .  .Hebrew  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs. 

Charles  Moss,  Secty.,  2104  Portland  Ave. 
Mobile,  Ala United  Hebrew  Charities,  Mr.  Henry  Hess 

Pres. 
Montgomery,  Ala.  .  .  .United    Hebrew    Charities,    Mr.    Jacques 

Loeb. 
Nashville,  Tenn Hebrew    Relief    Society,    Mr.    D.    dine. 

Secty.,  128  N.  Market  St. 
Natchez,  Miss Hebrew   Relief   Association,   Rabbi   S.    G. 

Bottigheimer. 
Newark,  N.  J Hebrew    Benevolent    Society,    Mr.    G.    J, 

Kempe,  Secty.,  530  Clinton  Ave. 
New  Haven,  Conn.  .  .Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mr.  F.  M.  Ad- 

ler,  Secty.,  care  of  Strause,  Adler  &  Co. 

New  Orleans,  La.  . . .  Assoc.  Relief  of  Jewish  Widows  and  Or- 
phans, Mr.  F  S.  Weis,  Secty.,  P.  O.  Box 

966: 
New  Orleans,  La.  . .  .Touro  Infirmary  and  Hebrew  Benevolent 

Assoe.,    Mr.    Chas.   Rosen,    Seety.,   3516 

Prytania  St. 
New  York,  N.  Y The  Free  Synagogue,  Rabbi  Stephen  Wise, 

46  E.  68th  St. 

New  York,  N.  Y.  . .  Hebrew  Free  Loan  Association,  108  Sec- 
ond Ave. 


NATIONAL.   CONFERENCE   OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  13 

New  York,  N.  Y.  ...United    Hebrew    Charities,    Dr.    Lee    K. 

Frankel,  Mgr.,  356  Second  Ave. 
New  York,  N.  Y.  .  .  .Young    Men's    Hebrew    Association,    Mr 

William  Mitchell,  Supt.,   92nd  St.  and 

Lexington  Ave. 
Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y. .Ladies'  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Miss 

Theresa    Gaismar,    Secty.,    826    Willow 

Ave. 
Norfolk,  Va.  . .; Ladies'  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs. 

Chas.  Meyers,  Secty.,  244  Holt  St. 
Oakland,  Cal Daughters  of  Israel  Relief  Society,  Filbert 

St. 
Paducah,  Ky Congregation  Temple  Israel,  I.  Nauheim, 

Secty. 

Pensacola,  Fla Congr.  Beth  El,  Mr.  Julius  Menko,  Secty. 

Peoria,  111 .Hebrew  Relief  Association. 

Philadelphia,  Pa.  . .  .  Home  for  Hebrew  Orphans,  Mr.  Meyer  C. 

Posner,  Secty.,  10th  and  Bainbridge  Sts. 

Philadelphia,  Pa.  . .  .The  Jewish  Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asy- 
lum,  Dr.   Fleischman,   Supt.,   16th   and 

Reed  Sts. 

Philadelphia,  Pa.  ...  The  Orphans'  Guardians,  Mr.  S.  W.  Good- 
man, Secty.,  116  N.  3rd  St. 
Philadelphia,  Pa.  ...  United  Hebrew  Charities,  Mr.  Moses  Klein: 

Supt.,  336  N.  6th  St. 
Philadelphia,  Pa.   . .  .Young  Women's  Union,  Miss  Alice  E.  Jas- 

trow,  Seety.,  1328  Montgomery  Ave. 

Phoenix,  Ariz Mr.  S.  Oberf elder. 

Pine  Bluff,  Ark Hebrew  Relief  Association. 

Pittsburg,  Pa United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Mr.  M. 

Himmelrich,  Treas.,  314  Fifth  Ave. 
Portland,  Ore First  Hebrew  Benevolent  Assoc.,  108  4th 

St. 
Portland,  Ore Jewish  Women's  Benevolent  Society.  Mrs. 

Tillie  Selling.  Secty.,  434  Main  St. 
Portsmouth,  O Ladies'  Aid  Society,  Mrs.  Clara  K.  Straus. 

Secty..  25  W.  2nd  St. 


14  PROCEEDINGS   OP    THE   FOURTH 

Reading,  Pa Ladies'  Hebrew  Aid  Society,  Mr.  Julius 

Frank,  Secty. 
Richmond,  Va Congregation    Beth    Ahabah,    Henry    S. 

Hutzler,  Secty. 
Richmond,  Va Hebrew  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs 

Moses  May,  Treas.,  607  E.  Broad  St. 
Rochester,  N.  Y.   . .  .Jewish  Orphan  Asylum  Assoc.  of  "Western 

N.  Y.,  Dr.  Max  Landsberg,  Secty.,  420 

Main  St. 

Rochester,  N.  Y.   ...  United  Jewish  Charities,  Dr.  Max  Lands- 
berg,  Secty.,  420  Main  St.,  East. 

Salt  Lake  City,  UtakJewish  Relief  Society,  539  E.  1st  South  St. 
San  Antonio,  Tex Montefiore  Benevolent  Society,  care  of  D, 

&  A.  Oppenheim. 
San  Francisco,  Cal. . .  Eananuel  Sisterhood,  Mrs.   C.  R.   Waiter. 

Secty.,  Menlo  Park,  Cal. 
San  Francisco,  Cal. .Eureka  Benevolent  Assoc.,  Mr.  Meyer  H. 

Levy,  Secty.,  436  O'Farrell  St. 
San  Francisco,  Cal.  .Pacific     Hebrew     Orphan     Asylum,     Mr. 

Henry  Mauser,  Supt,  212  Sansome  St. 
Savannah,  Ga Congr.  Mickva  Israel,  Mr.  Benj.  J.  Apple, 

Secty. 
Savannah,  Ga Ladies'  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs. 

S.  L.  Lazaron,  Secty.,  124  W.  Park  Ave. 
Scranton,  Pa Jewish  Ladies'  Relief  Society,  Mrs.  Louis 

H.  Isaacs,  Secty.,  415  Madison  Ave. 
Sio«x  City,  la Jewish  Ladies'  Aid    Society,    Mrs.    Benj. 

Schulein,  Secty. 
Staten  Island,  N.  Y.  .Hebrew    Benevolent    Society,    Mr.    Julius 

Schwartz,  Pres.,  128  Bway.,  N.  Y.  City. 
St.  Joseph,  Mo Jewish   Ladies'    Benevolent   Society,  Mrs. 

Julius  Rosenblatt,  Secty.,  410  N.  6th  St. 
St.  Louis,  Mo Jewish  Charitable  and  Educational  Union. 

Mr.  Bernard  Greensfelder,  Secty. 
St.  Paul,  Minn Beekor    Cholim    Society,    Mrs.    B.    Mark. 

Pres.,  589  Pine  St. 
St.  Paul,  Minn The  Jewish  Relief  Society,  Mrs.  J.  West- 

heimer,  Secty.,  846  Summit  Ave. 


NATIONAL   CONFERENCE  OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES. 


15 


St.  Paul,  Minn. 


Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Terre  Haute,  Ind. 


Toledo,  0.  . . 
Troy,  N.  Y. 


Vicksburg,  Miss.  . 
Vicksburg,  Miss.  . 

Waco,  Tex 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Wheeling,  W.  Va. 
Wheeling,  W.  Va. 
Wilkes-Barre,  Pa. 
Wilmington,  Del. 
Youngstown,  0.  . 


..Sisters   of   Peace   Relief   Society,   216   E. 

Summit  Ave. 

,.  .United  Jewish  Charities,  102  Walnut  Place. 
. .  Jewish  Aid  Society,  Rabbi  Emil  Leipziger 

Secty.,  706  S.  5th  St. 

...Hebrew  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs. 
..Ladies'  Society,  Berith  Shalom  Congrega- 
tion. 

B.  Kaufman,  Treas.,  211  Scottwood  Ave. 
. .  .Ladies'  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Mrs. 

Bettie  Gusdorfer,  Pres.,  S.  Cherry  St. 
.  .Associated  Jewish  Charities,  Sol.  L.  Kory. 

Supt. 

. .  The  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society. 
The  United  Hebrew  Charities,  Columbian 

Bldg. 
. .  United   Hebrew    Charities,    Rabbi    Henry 

Levi,  Secty. 
. .  Congr.    Leshem    Shomayim,    Mr.    Joseph 

Raduziner,  Secty. 
.  .Ladies'  Auxiliary,  Y.  M.  H.  A.,  Miss  Pa- 

melia  Constine,  Secty.,  275  S.  River  St. 
. .  Hebrew   Charity   Association,   Mr.    Harry 

Gordon,  Secty.,  231  Market  St. 
.  .Youngstown  Hebrew  Charity  Society,  Mr. 

B.  Hartzeli,  care  of  Hartzeli  Bros.  Co. 


Register  of  Delegates 


V.  H.  Kriegshaber,  Federation  of  Jewish  Charities,  At- 
lanta, Ga. 

R.  A.  Sonn,  Hebrew  Orphan  Home,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Jacob  Hahn,  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Prof.  Jacob  H.  Hollander,  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society. 
Baltimore,  Md. 

Miss  Bertha  H.  Gelders,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Birming- 
ham, Ala. 

Myer  Bloomfield,  Civic  Service  House,  Boston,  Mass. 

Mrs.  Rosa  Z.  Krokin,  Council  of  Jewish  Women,  Boston, 
Mass. 

Max  Mitchell,  Federation  of  Jewish  Charities,  Boston,  Mass. 

I.  Aaron,  Federated  Jewish  Charities,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Mrs.  William  Elkus,  Federated  Jewish  Charities,  Buffalo, 
N.  Y. 

Miss  Cecile  B.  Weiner,  Federated  Jewish  Charities,  Buffalo. 
N.  Y. 

Miss  Miriam  Kalisky,  United  Hebrew  Charities,  Chicago,  111. 

A.  R.  Levy,  Jewish  Agricultural  Aid  Society  of  America. 
Chicago,  111. 

Julian  W.  Mack,  Associated  Jewish  Charities,  Chicago.  111. 

Dr.  Theo.  B.  Sachs,  United  Hebrew  Charities,  Chicago,  111. 

Mrs.  Theo.  B.  Sachs,  United  Hebrew  Charities,  Chicago,  111. 

Dr.  Boris  D.  Bogen,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Cincinnati,  O 

Sidney  E.  Pritz,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Cincinnati.  0. 

Max  Senior,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Cincinnati,  0. 

Martin  A.  Marks,  Jewish  Orphan  Asylum,  Cleveland,  0. 

A.  S.  Newman,  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Cleveland,  O. 

Miss  Anna  Hillkowitz,  Jewish  Consumptives  Relief  Society. 
Denver,  Col. 

Alfred  Muller,  National  Jewish  Hospital  for  Consumptives. 
Denver,  Col. 

Alfre'd  Patek,  National  Jewish  Hospital  for  Consumptives. 
Denver,  Col. 

Mrs.  S.  Pisko,  Jewish  Relief  Society,  Denver,  Col. 

Mrs.  Helen  E.  Wolf,  Jewish  Relief  Society,  Denver,  Col. 

Bernard  Ginsburg,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Miss  Bella  Goldman,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Miss  Blanche  Hart,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Detroit,  Mich. 


*The  Register  of  Delegates  is  arranged  alphabetically  according  to  eity. 


NATIONAL,    CONFERENCE   OF   JEWISH    CHARITIES.  17 

David  Scheyer,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Mrs.  David  Scheyer,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Mrs.  Emina  Eckhouse,  Jewish  Federation,  Indianapolis,  Inc. 

Mrs.  Isidor  Rosenthal,  United  Hebrew  Charity  Association. 
Lancaster,  Pa. 

E;dward  Grauman,  United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Louis- 
ville, Ky. 

A.  Richman,  United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Louisville. 

Ky. 

G.  S.  Rosenberg,  United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Louis- 
ville, Ky. 

S.  Shapinsky,  United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Louisville. 
Ky. 

Jacob  Billikopf ,  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

Mr.  A.  W.  Rich,  Hebrew  Relief  Association.  Milwaukee. 
Wis. 

Mrs.  A.  W.  Rich,  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Milwaukee. 
Wis. 

Mrs.  A.  Goldberg,  Hebrew  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society,  Min- 
neapolis, Minn. 

Michel  Heynian,  Jewish  Orphans'  Home,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Miss  Sadie  American,  Council  of  Jewish  Women.  New  York. 
N.  Y. 

Mrs.  I.  M.  Appel,  Emanuel  Sisterhood,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Mrs.  M.  S.  Appel,  Emanuel  Sisterhood,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Dr.  Ludwig  B.  Bernstein,  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian  So- 
ciety, New  York,  N.  Y. 

Julius  J.  Dukas.  Hebrew  Free  Loan  Society,  New  York. 
N.  Y. 

Sidney  E.  Goldstein,  Mt.  Sinai  Hospital,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Mrs.  Leo  S.  Greenbaum.  Federation  of  Sisterhoods,  New 
York,  N.  Y. 

Maurice  H.  Harris,  Harlem  Federation,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Mrs.  Charles  H.  Israels,  Council  of  Jewish  Women,  New 
York,  N.  Y. 

Morris  Jacoby,  Hebrew  Free  Loan  Society,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Leon  Kamaiky,  United  Hebrew  Charities,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Mrs.  Leon  Kamaiky,  United  Hebrew  Charities.  New  York 
N.  Y. 

Solomon  Lowenstein.  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum  Xew  York 
N.  Y. 

William  Mitchell,  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association,  New 
York.  N.  Y. 

H.  Rabinowich,  Hebrew  Free  Loan  Society,  New  York,  N.  Y 
Mrs.  Louis  Siff,  New  York.  N.  Y. 


18  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   FOURTH 

Miss  Rose  Sommerfeld,  Clara  De  Hirsch  Home,  New  York. 
N.  Y. 

Mrs.  Fred  Waehtel,  Ceres  Sewing  Circle,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Falk  Younker.  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association,  New  York. 
N.  Y. 

Charles  Zunser,  United  Hebrew  Charities,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

M.  Himmelrich,  United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Pittrs- 
burg,  Pa. 

Miss  Edna  P.  Kerngood,  Council  of  Jewish  Women,  Pitts- 
burg,  Pa. 

0.  H.  Rosenbaum,  United  Hebrew  Relief  Association,  Pitts- 
burg,  Pa. 

Miss  Julia  Schoenfeld,  Columbian  Council  School,  Pitts- 
burg,  Pa. 

Mrs.  Fannie  R.  Bigelow,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Rochester. 
N.  Y. 

Dr.  Sigmund  Handler,  Jewish  Orphan  Asylum  of  Western 
New  York,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Dr.  Max  Landsberg,  United  Jewish  Charities,  Rochester. 
N.  Y. 

Mrs.  Miriam  Landsberg,  United  Jewish  Charities.  Rochester. 
N.  Y. 

Mrs.  J.  R.  Cohen,  Jewish  Ladies'  Relief  Society.  Scranton. 
Pa. 

Mrs.  Martin  Simmons.  Jewish  Ladies'  Relief  Society,  Scran- 
ton,  Pa. 

Bernard  Greensfelder.  Jewish  Charitable  and  Educational 
Union,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Mrs.  Bernard  Greensfelder,  Jewish  Charitable  and  Educa- 
tional Union,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Mrs.  Jacob  Wirth,  Jewish  Relief  Society,  St.  Paul.  Minn. 

Simon  Wolf,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Mrs.  George  Galland,  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association. 
Ladies'  Auxiliary,  Wilkes-Barre,  Pa. 

Miss  Bertha  Strauss,  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association. 
Ladies'  Auxiliary,  Wilkes-Barre,  Pa. 

Morris  Levy,  Hebrew  Charity  Association,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Mrs.  M.  L.  Roeder. 


Programme 


OPENING  SESSION. 
i 

Sunday  evening,  May  6th,  8  o'clock,  Temple  Keneseth  Israel, 
Broad  Street,  above  Columbia  Avenue,  Public  Meeting. 

ADDRESS    OP    WELCOME:    William    B.    Hackenburg,    President 

Jewish  Hospital   Association,  Philadelphia. 
PRESIDENT'S  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CONFERENCE:  Judge   Julian  W. 

Mack,  Chicago. 
REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  DISTRIBUTION  :  Cyrus  Sulzberger 

New  York. 

Reception  in  the  Assembly  Room  of  the  Temple. 

Monday  morning,  May  1th.  9.30  o'clock,  Mercantile  Club, 
Broad  Street,  above  Master. 

Registration  of  Delegates. 
DESERTION  :  Dr.  Lee  K.  Frankel.  New  York. 
DISCUSSION  : 

Persistency  of  Dependence  as  Indicated  by  Relief  Sta- 
tistics. Dr.  Boris  D.  Bogen,  Cincinnati. 
DISCUSSION  : 

12.15.     Lunch  at  Mercantile  Club. 

1  o'clock.     Automobiles  to  Jewish  Hospital,  York  Road 
and  Olney  Avenue. 

2.30  o'clock.    Meeting  at  Jewish  Foster  Home  and  Orphan 
Asylum,  Church  Lane  and  Chew  Streets. 

"Placing  out  of  Jewish  Children."    Dr.  L.  B.  Bernstein, 
New  York. 

"The  English  and  German  Cottage  Plan  for  the  Care  of 
Orphans."    Rabbi  Simon  Peiser,  Cleveland. 

Discussion  of  the  Cottage  Plan  from  the  Architectural 
Point  of  View.    Charles  H.  Israels,  New  York. 

"Jewish    Delinquent    Children."     Falk    Younker,    New 
York. 

"Homes  for  Working  Girls."     Miss  Rose   Sonunerfeld. 
New  York. 

5  o'clock.     Return  trip  by  automobile  through  German- 
town  and  Fair-mount  Park. 

9  o'clock.     Reception,  Hotel  Majestic,  Broad  Street  and 
Girard  Avenue. 


20  PROCEEDINGS   OF    THE   FOURTH 

Tuesday  morning,  May  8th,  9.30  o'clock.    Meeting  at  the  rooms 

of  Hebrew  Education  Society,  Touro  Hall, 

Tenth  and  Carpenter  Streets. 

' '  State  Aid  to  Sectarian  Institutions. ' '  Prof.  Morris  Loeb. 
New  York. 

Statistics  of  Institutional  Management. 

' '  Homes  for  the  Aged  and  Infirm. ' '  Michel  Heyman,  New- 
Orleans. 

"Institutions  for  Children."  Solomon  Lowenstein,  Ne^v 
York. 

12  o'clock.     Lunch  at  Touro  Hall. 

1  o'clock.  Visits  to  Home  for  Hebrew  Orphans.  Tenth 
and  Bainbridge  Streets ;  Jewish  Maternity  Hospital,  534 
Spruce  Street;  Young  Women's  Union,  422  Bainbridge 
Street ;  Mt.  Sinai  Hospital,  Fifth  and  Wilder  Streets. 

2.30  o  'clock.  Meeting  at  the  rooms  of  the  Hebrew  Litera- 
ture Society,  310  Catherine  Street. 

Agriculture. 
"The  Baron  De  Hirsch  Fund."     Eugene  S.  Benjamin, 

New  York. 

"A  Plan  of  Agricultural  Settlement."    A.  W.  Rich,  Mil- 
waukee. 
"Agriculture,  a  Most  Effective  Means  in  Adjusting  the 

Compromised   Economic   Condition   of   Jewish   Poor." 

Rabbi  A.  R.  Levy,  Chicago. 
' '  Possibilities  for  Agricultural  Settlements  in  the  South. ' ' 

Dr.  I.  L.  Leucht,  New  Orleans. 
' '  Agricultural  Education. ' ' 

Dr.  Joseph  Krauskopf,  Philadelphia 

Dr.  H.  L.  Sabsovich,  New  York. 

Tuesday  evening,  8  o'clock..  Meeting  at  Mercantile  Club, 
Broad  Street,  above  Master. 

Tuberculosis. 
"Dealing  with  the  Consumptive  at  Home."     Dr.  F.  L 

Wachenheim,  New  York. 

"Local  Sanatoria."    Dr.  Theo.  B.  Sachs,  Chicago. 
"Care  of  Advanced  Cases."    Dr.  C.  D.  Spivak,  Denver. 
"Sanatoria  for  Consumptives."    Alfred  Muller.  Denver. 
Business  Meeting. 


PROCEEDINGS 


Sunday,  May  6th,  eight  P.  M. 

Meeting  at  Temple  Keneseth  Israel  was  opened  by  a  prayer 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Krauskopf  of  Philadelphia,  after  which. 
Mr.  Max  Herzberg,  of  the  Philadelphia  Local  Committee,  intro- 
duced Mr.  '"W.  B.  Hackenburg,  who  welcomed  the  delegates  to 
the  Conference  as  follows : 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  OP  THE  NATIONAL 
CONFERENCE  OF  JEWISH  CHARITIES:  On  behalf  of  Philadelphia's 
75,000  Jews  I  extend  to  you,  fellow  workers  in  the  cause  of 
charity,  a  sincere  and  hearty  welcome. 

Our  city,  the  home  of  modern  methods  of  dispensing  charity, 
is  proud  to  have  been  selected  as  the  place  of  meeting  for  your 
Conference.  It  will  be  our  purpose  to  make  your  stay  with  us 
pleasant  and  interesting,  and  we  hope  that  you  will  be  con- 
vinced that  the  Jews  of  this  great  city  are  alive  to  their  duty  in 
the  field  of  philanthropy.  Many  of  you,  leaders  in  your 
local  charities,  have  left  your  homes,  dropped  the  cares  of 
business,  have  travelled  long  distances  to  be  present  at  this  con- 
vention, to  furnish  us  with  your  experience  in  the  noble  labor 
you  have  undertaken,  to  make  those  acquired  experiences  of  value 
to  others,  and  to  discuss  plans  for  improvement  of  systems  and 
methods  of  alleviating  distress.  The  discussion  of  new  plans  and 
recommendations  by  a  class  of  experienced  men  and  women  is  of 
inestimable  value,  not  alone  to  the  participants  in  this  Confer- 
ence, but  to  other  similar  organizations  in  their  work  of  relief. 

This  Conference  is  the  outcome  or  growth  of  improved  devel- 
opments in  philanthropic  work,  the  result  of  deep  thought  and 
study  by  earnest  workers  for  the  relief  of  suffering  humanity. 
It  is  a  subject  that  has  received  the  close  attention  of  numerous 
leaders  of  every  denomination.  While  you  are  here  assembled 


22  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

to  consider  and  review  the  charitable  work  of  the  Jews,  the  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  embracing  socie- 
ties of  all  religions,  is  to  meet  here  for  a  similar  purpose.  With 
the  utmost  confidence  and  pardonable  pride  I  make  the  assertion 
that  no  people  in  the  world  has  devoted  more  time,  money  and 
labor  in  the  endeavor  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  its  poor 
and  distressed  brethren  in  faith  than  we  Jews,  and  certainly  none 
with  better  results.  Our  methods  have  been  regarded  so  near  the 
best  that  similar  societies  of  other  creeds  have  sought  them  for 
adoption  either  in  their  formation  or  in  the  improvement  of  their 
present  systems.  While  the  affairs  of  our  eleemosynary  associa- 
tions, including  almsgiving,  hospitals,  homes  for  the  aged, 
orphan  asylums,  are  all  conducted  upon  the  latest  and  most 
approved  methods;  in  their  financial  affairs  I  venture  to  say, 
like  all  others,  few  if  any,  are  able  to  keep  within  the  bounds  of 
their  estimated  income ;  the  liberality  of  our  generous  co-religion- 
ists however,  always  has,  and  I  am  sure,  always  will  continue  to 
prevent  the  occurrence  of  so  direful  a  calamity  as  closing  the 
doors  of  institutions  or  of  being  compelled  to  refuse  relief  to 
the  distressed  and  suffering. 

With  the  growth  of  our  Jewish  population  the  work  of  provid- 
ing for  the  stricken  classes  has  enormously  increased,  our  relief 
societies  are  taxed  to  the  utmost,  the  beds  of  our  hospitals  are 
constantly  filled,  our  orphan  asylums  and  homes  for  the  aged  and 
infirm  have  waiting  lists  of  urgent  applicants,  and  the  scats 
and  desks  of  our  educational  institutions,  which  have  proved  an 
important  aid  in  this  philanthropic  work,  are  always  in  demand. 
While  it  is  quite  true  that  these  largely  increased  demands  have 
been  liberally  met  by  a  generous  community  of  one  million  five 
hundred  thousand  Jews,  the  few  cities  that  have  founded  socie- 
ties known  as  the  Federation  of  Jewish  Charities,  have,  it  ap- 
pears to  us,  proved  themselves  to  be  a  valuable  and  important  aid 
in  economizing  the  labor  of  gathering  funds  for  the  support  of 
communal  charities.  Of  this  fact  no  better  evidence  can  be 
offered  than  that  of  our  own  city.  Five  years  ago  the  total 
amount  of  money  collected  from  the  Jews  of  Philadelphia  from 
memberships  and  donations  was  between  $90,000  and  $100.000. 
During  the  fifth  year  just  closed  the  subscription  to  the  Federa- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  23 

tion  of  Jewish  Charities  of  Philadelphia  was  in  round  figures 
$145,000,  being  about  50  per  cent,  increase  over  the  old  system. 
I  am  informed  that  equally  satisfactory  results  have  attended  the 
Federations  that  have  been  established  in  other  cities,  notably 
Chicago  and  Cincinnati.  Not  one  of  the  twelve  beneficiary  insti- 
tutions of  this  city  will  dispute  that  while  they  are  frequently 
short  of  sufficient  income,  yet  has  this  financial  auxiliary  proved 
more  effective  to  supply  their  wants  than  did  former  methods; 
these  indisputable  facts  should  invite  the  attention  of  other  com- 
munities to  its  great  worth  and  usefulness. 

The  amount  of  money  expended  yearly  by  the  Jews  in  the 
United  States  for  the  support  of  their  charitable  institutions  and 
societies  is  very  large.  I  believe  that  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Chicago,  Cincinnati,  Baltimore.  Cleveland,  New  Orleans  and 
San  Francisco  will  aggregate  close  to  two  millions  of  dollars.  I 
may  be  pardoned  for  giving  the  figures  expended  in  this  city, 
where  we  have  a  Hospital,  Dispensary  and  a  Private  Hospital 
open  to  all  denominations,  a  Home  for  Aged  and  Infirm  Israel- 
ites, a  Home  for  Consumptives  of  the  Jewish  Faith  under  one 

management,  the  running  expenses  costing  about $90.000 

The  United  Hebrew  Charities 50,000 

A  Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asylum 26,500 

An  Educational  Society  11,000 

An  Orphan's  Guardian  Society 5,000 

A  Maternity  Hospital 10,000 

A  Seaside  Home  for  Children 4,000 

An  Immigrant  Aid  Society 1,000 

A  Young  Women's  Union  for  Care  of  Children 16,000 

A  Sunday  School  Society 3,000 

National  Farm  School  at  Doylestown 20,000 

An  annual  appropriation  for  the  Denver  Hospital  for 

Consumptives 3,000 

A  branch  of  the  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle 500 

All  of  these  charities  are  beneficiaries  of  the  Federation  aggre- 
gating a  total  expenditure  of  about  $250,000,  at  least  $140,000  of 
which  came  from  the  Federation  of  Charities.  In  addition  to  those 
named  there  are  an  independent  hospital,  an  orphan  asylum, 
and  possibly  six  or  eight  independent  relief  societies  expending 


24  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

an  amount  aggregating  between  $40,000  and  $50,000.  This, 
I  think,  is  a  sufficient  warrant  for  the  estimate  I  have  given.  In 
our  extensive  field  of  philanthropy  we  must  not  overlook  the  en- 
deavors being  made  to  establish  agricultural  pursuits  for  our 
people.  The  efforts  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund  have  met  with 
reasonable  success;  its  Agricultural  School  at  Woodbine,  and 
the  National  Farm  School  at  Doylestown,  with  a  few  smaller 
organizations  in  the  far  West,  have  also  had  fair  results.  It  is  quite 
right  to  admit  that  this  is  a  difficult  problem  to  solve,  but  with 
the  increased  efforts  of  the  Jewish  Agricultural  and  Industrial 
Aid  Society,  an  auxiliary  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund,  com- 
bined with  other  similar  organizations,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  this 
unlimited,  elevating  and  independent  industry  can  be  sufficiently 
developed  to  provide  a  livelihood,  not  alone  for  numbers  of  those 
who  rely  upon  our  societies  for  assistance,  but  will  also  succeed 
in  distributing  many  of  the  people  gathered  in  our  great  and 
crowded  cities ;  "  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished. ' ' 

Let  us  hope  that  after  reviewing  the  present  methods  of  phil- 
anthropic work  and  the  attendant  discussions,  that  your  delibera- 
tions may  serve  to  widen  the  scope  of  our  knowledge  and  further 
the  power  to  ameliorate  the  woes  of  our  suffering  brethren. 

I  cannot  forbear  adding  a  word  of  tribute  to  the  generosity 
with  which  your  constituents  and  mine  have  met  the  urgent  de- 
mands produced  by,  the  dreadful  persecution  of  the  Jews  of 
Russia.  Language  fails  to  describe  the  scene  of  horror  and 
misery  in  that  benighted  land.  Conditions  such  as  these  have 
driven  many  to  our  shores.  In  discussing  the  question  presented 
we  must  not  fail  to  keep  this  circumstance  in  mind. 

You  will  hear  speakers  of  experience  and  ability  on  the  various 
problems  that  engage  your  attention,  and  lest  I  trench  upon  their 
time,  permit  me  again  to  assure  you  of  our  city's  welcome,  of 
our  pleasure  to  have  you  with  us  and  to  indulge  the  hope  that 
you  may  enjoy  your  stay  in  our  midst. 

PRESIDENT    MACK'S    ADDRESS. 

Judge  Julian  W.  Mack,  President  of  the  Conference,  said : 
For  the  fourth  time  we  have  come  together  in  biennial  conclave 
to  consider  the  problems  that  confront  the  charitable  organiza- 


NATIONAL,    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  25 

tions  of  the  Jews  of  America— problems  no  longer  new,  though 
demanding  year  by  year  more  imperatively  than  ever  that  the 
true  solution  be  found  for  them.  And  in  this  city  at  this  time, 
when  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections  is 
about  to  meet,  the  question  again  arises.  Why  should  we  confer  on 
Jewish  charity  ?  Aye,  why  have  we  our  Jewish  charities  ? 

The  Jew  seeks  no  separation.  He  has  ever  realized  the  truth  of 
human  brotherhood.  He  is  at  one  with  the  followers  of  all 
other  religions  in  a  common  American  citizenship.  He  claims  no 
privileges  that  are  not  granted  to  others.  He  accepts  no  denials 
of  the  rights  that  are  accorded  to  his  fellow  men.  He  recognizes 
that  if  he  be  of  the  chosen  people,  that  people  has  been  chosen 
not  to  ask  for  and  to  receive  special  favors,  but  to  bear  and  to 
fulfill  special  duties  and  obligations. 

Loyalty  to  his  country  and  to  his  faith  demands  that  in  all 
communal  activities — philanthropic  and  otherwise — he  take  his 
place  in  the  front  rank,  studying  the  uplifting  social  forces  that 
are  to  bring  about  a  regeneration,  co-operating  with  his  fellow 
citizens  in  contributing  with  head  and  heart  and  purse  to  the 
advancement  of  our  civilization ;  and  therefore  it  behooves  them 
all  to  participate  in  that  greater  and  older  organization  whose 
sessions  follow  ours,  and  whose  conferences  have  heretofore  at- 
tracted some,  but  by  no  means  a  fairly  proportionate  representa- 
tion of  Jews. 

A  quarter  of  a  millennium  ago,  when  the  Jews  sought  a  home 
in  this  land,  the  favor,  not  the  right,  was  accorded  to  them,  but 
upon  the  express  condition  that  they,should  provide  for  and  take 
care  of  their  poor,  so  that  they  should  not  be  a  burden  upon  the 
community. 

To-day  the  Jew  no  longer  need  ask  the  gracious  consent  of  the 
sovereign  power,  but  may  come  freely  and  under  the  same  con- 
ditions as  all  others.  Nevertheless,  he  conceives  it  to  be  his 
duty — no  longer  to  his  fellow  Americans,  but  to  himself,  to  his 
religion,  to  his  fellow  Jews— faithfully  to  carry  out  this  pledge 
given  by  his  ancestors,  the  contemporaries  of  the  Puritans  and 
the  Cavaliers.  This  explains  the  need  of  our  own  separate 
charities,  to  better  and  to  strengthen  which  we  have  created  this 
National  Conference. 


26  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

But  though  we  undertake  our  self-imposed  tasks  gladly,  aye, 
proudly,  we  shall  not  be  the  less  active  in  all  unsectarian  or  joint- 
sectarian  work.  We  shall  welcome  and  join  in  every  philan- 
thropic union.  And  therefore  we  should  give  our  approval  to 
the  merger  of  our  official  organ,  Jewish  Chanty  with  Charities 
and  the  Commons,  by  actively  supporting  this,  the  one  magazine 
which  is  indispensable  to  everyone,  who  wishes  to  keep  abreast  of 
the  times  in  social  and  philanthropic  work  and  thought. 

Faithfully  and  earnestly,  however,  we  should  strive  to  lighten 
the  load  by  educating  the  newcomer,  by  supplanting  almsgiving 
with  genuine  aid,  by  making  the  weak  and  helpless  self-support- 
ing in  the  city  and  on  the  farm,  by  eradicating  delinquency  and 
protecting  our  girls  from  the  dangers  that  surround  them,  by 
sheltering  the  widowed  and  aged,  by  substituting  wherever  possi- 
ble the  home  for  the  institution  in  caring  for  our  orphans,  and 
making  all  of  the  institutions,  which  are  essential,  models  of 
their  kind,  by  checking  disease,  by  adding  to  our  hospitals  the 
convalescent  homes  so  essential  to  a  complete  restoration,  by  sup- 
pressing desertion  and  by  promoting  that  international  spirit  of 
justice  and  fairness  which  alone  can  render  the  condition  of  the 
great  mass  of  our  co-religionists  tolerable. 

Many  of  our  aims  are  common  to  all  Americans.  The  immi- 
gration question,  e.  g.,  is  not  in  any  true  sense  a  Jewish  problem : 
it  is  a  national  one.  It  raises  the  fundamental  query:  Shall 
America  pursue  her  mission  ?  Shall  she  be  the  leader  of  liberty 
among  the  nations  ?  Shall  her  doors  in  the  future  as  in  the  past 
swing  gladly  open  at  the  knock  of  every  decent  applicant  ?  Shall 
she  continue  to  be  the  refuge  of  the  victim  of  political  oppres- 
sion and  religious  bigotry  ?  Shall  she  grow  greater  and  stronger 
through  the  labors,  the  energy,  the  love,  aye,  the  fanatical  devo- 
tion of  those  who  at  last  have  found  a  haven  of  peace  and  rest  in 
her  broad  lands,  or  shall  she.  heeding  the  cry  of  some  who  fear 
a  personal  loss,  themselves  but  immigrants  one,  two  or  three 
generations  removed,  reverse  her  national  policy  and  sink  to  the 
know-nothing  level  ? 

This,  I  say,  is  not  a  Jewish  problem,  though  we  as  Jews  are 
vitally  interested  in  it.  AVe  ask  nothing  for  the  victims  of  Rus- 
sian brutality  that  we  do  not  demand  for  the  valiant  opponents 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  27 

of  Turkey 's  misrule ;  we  seek  no  favors  for  the  Jewish  immigrant  ,- 
we  demand  justice  and  equality,  but  we  offer  the  old-time  pledge, 
that  he  shall  not  become  a  burden  on  the  community. 

May  the  spirit  that  prevailed  in  the  great  immigration  con- 
ference last  winter  in  New  York,  that  was  voiced  by  such  leaders 
as  President  Eliot  and  Andrew  Carnegie  in  demanding  that  we 
recognize  the  need  of  worthy  immigration  and  the  ability  of  this 
great  land  to  absorb  and  assimilate  many  generations  of  immi- 
grants, find  its  echo  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Let  the  standards 
of  physical,  mental  and  moral  conditions  be  maintained,  but  do 
not  let  us  substitute  for  the  true  ideal  of  sound  character  and 
capacity  for  American  citizenship  the  false  test  of  money  and 
education — "Not  what  the  immigrant  is  when  he  lands,  but  what 
he  shows  an  aptitude  for  becoming"  should  determine  his  admis- 
sibility. 

Many  sections  of  the  country  offer  abundant  opportunity  for 
work— aye,  even  in  New  York,  or  shall  I  say,  particularly  in  New 
York,  crowded  as  it  is,  the  newcomer  finds  little  difficulty  in  se- 
curing employment;  real  character,  even  without  book-learning, 
teaches  him  thrift;  the  opportunities  that  our  public  schoo's 
afford  enable  him  to  educate  and  Americanize  his  children,  and 
none  is  quicker  than  he  to  take  advantage  thereof. 

Especially  is  all  of  this  true  of  the  Jewish  immigrant  of  the 
last  quarter  century.  Though  he  may  be  in  the  beginning  and 
in  a  measure  dependent  upon  his  co-religionists — not  upon  the 
community  at  large— the  persistency  of  this  condition  is  very 
brief,  as  we  shall  learn  from  the  statistical  studies  that  Dr.  Bogen 
has  made  on  this  subject.  They  will  demonstrate  that  were  it 
not  for  the  continuous  stream  of  immigration,  most  of  the  work 
that  our  Jewish  charities,  especially  the  relief  offices,  are  doing, 
would  be  in  a  few  years  practically  finished. 

But  we  cannot  look  forward  too  hopefully  to  such  an  end.  The 
clouds  that  gathered  on  our  horizon  shortly  before  the  last  con- 
ference, in  the  Kisheneff  outrages,  far  from  being  dispell'1'!. 
grew  blacker  and  blacker,  culminating  in  the  terrible  pogroms 
of  1905.  the  horrors  of  Odessa  and  the  eighty  or  more  other  towns 
of  Russia.  Easter  has  passed  without  a  repetition  of  these  tor- 
turing crimes.  What  the  future  has  in  store  for  the  Russian  Jew. 


28  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

God  only  knows.  Against  bigotry  in  high  places  and  in  low, 
the  mighty  forces  of  civilization  are  waging  a  fierce  battle  for 
control.  Russia  can  never  again  be  the  Russia  of  old.  Whether 
autocracy  conquer  in  the  end  or  constitutional  monarchy,  or  even 
republic  supplant  it,  some  betterment  in  the  condition  of  the 
Jews  seems  inevitable. 

Many  generations  may  pass  before  the  Russian  Jew  shall 
come  into  his  own,  but  human  life  and  liberty  must  surely  be 
better  protected  than  before. 

When  the  souls  of  the  Jews  throughout  the  world  were  torn 
with  anguish  and  despair,  a  ray  of  sunshine  broke  through  the 
black  clouds — a  harbinger  of  hope.  The  mighty  forces  of  Israel 
were  united  to  a  man.  No  longer  were  we  American,  German, 
Russian  or  Portuguese  Jews— separated  by  creedal,  racial  or  other 
difference — but  one  united  band,  called  together  and  officered  by 
those  devoted  leaders  in  New  York,  whose  contributions  of  time 
and  thought  were  at  least  as  effective  as  their  generous  outpour- 
ing of  money  to  stimulate  the  Jews  of  America  to  raise  a  million 
and  a  half  dollars  for  the  victims  of  Russian  massacres.  Not 
knowing  when  the  call  to  further  aid— moral,  financial,  aye,  gov- 
ernmental—might come  again,  these  leaders  have  suggested  the 
establishment  of  a  permanent  committee  or  congress,  fully  repre- 
sentative of  American  Judaism.  No  definite  plans  have  been 
adopted,  a  wide  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  advisability  of  any 
such  body  and  as  to  the  possibility  of  making  it  really  repre- 
sentative may  perhaps  frustrate  the  undertaking.  In  the  confer- 
ences on  the  subject,  our  organization  has  been  fully  represented. 

Some  body,  national  or  international,  is  clearly  needed,  to 
guide  the  great  tide  of  Jewish  immigration,  to  study  conditions, 
both  in  Russia  and  in  those  other  lands  to  which  the  victims  of 
religious  bigotry  will  be  welcomed,  to  encourage  a  movement 
from  the  large  cities  by  providing  for  not  merely  the  necessities 
of  human  life,  but  the  real  wants  of  these  people  in  other  locali- 
ties. 

The  work  of  the  Removal  Bureau,  of  which  we  shall  hear  to- 
night, is  along  these  lines.  In  commerce  and  industrial  life  the 
Jew  has  always  demonstrated  his  capacity,  and  we  shall  learn  in 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  29 

the  course  of  this  Conference  that  the  successful  pursuit  of  agri- 
culture is  equally  within  the  powers  of  these  immigrants. 

None  thought  a  few  months  ago  that  from  our  own  people  a 
call  for  aid  would  come.  We  have  all  poured  out  a  golden  stream 
for  the  sufferers  in  San  Francisco.  The  most  appalling  single 
calamity  in  the  history  of  our  country  aroused  the  American 
people  to  a  prompt  and  united  response.  Jew  and  non-Jew  have 
joined  heartily,  generously,  lavishly,  in  giving;  Jew  and  non- 
Jew  will  receive  impartially  and  according  to  the  individual 
needs.  But,  though  we  give  never  so  bountifully  to  the  general 
fund,  we  must  not  refuse  the  special  additional  claim  of  our 
fellow  Jews,  to  assist  in  the  reconstruction  and  temporary  main- 
tenance of  their  destroyed  institutions  and  crippled  organizations. 

At  the  call  of  several  San  Francisco  societies  we  are  investi- 
gating the  situation  on  the  spot  through  a  special  committee.  On 
their  report  a  full  statement  will  be  made  and  an  appeal  issued 
for  whatever  assistance  may  be  required. 

The  Jews  of  our  larger  cities  are  ever  called  upon  for  one  or 
the  other  purpose ;  the  country  Jew  too  seldom  knows  that  there 
are  Jewish  charities.  This  is  an  especial  opportunity  for  him, 
and  I  urge  particularly  upon  the  delegates  from  the  smaller 
communities  to  arouse  their  members  to  a  realization  of  their 
larger  national  obligations. 

One  of  the  great  evils  that  led  to  the  formation  of  this  Confer- 
ence was  the  habit  of  sending  applicants  from  town  to  town, 
irrespective  of  their  ability  to  maintain  themselves  and  without 
enquiry  of,  or  notice  to,  the  authorities  of  the  place  to  which 
transportation  was  given.  To  get  rid"  of  a  case  in  any  way  was 
the  principle  that  too  often  guided  the  action  of  relief  boards. 
The  adoption  of  the  transportation  rules  has  reduced  the  enor- 
mous expenditures  for  railroad  fares  to  a  minimum ;  has  brought 
about  a  genuine  spirit  of  co-operation  between  our,  members,  and 
has  saved  the  poor,  overstrained,  often  neurotic  applicants  the 
useless  wear  and  tear  involved  in  shifting  them  about.  During 
the  past  two  years  your  Arbitration  Committee  has  had  but  one 
complaint  involving  the  interpretation  of  the  governing  rules. 
The  evil  is  well  nigh  eradicated. 

Conld  we  but  say  the  same  of  that  other  predominant  cause 


30  PROCEEDINGS    OK    THE    FOURTH 

of  distress — wife  and  family  desertion !  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
forestall  the  very  interesting  discussion  of  this  subject  by  Dr. 
Frankel  to-morrow.  New  York  and  Chicago  are,  of  course,  the 
chief  sufferers  from  this  grievous  wrong-doing.  A  better  co- 
operation between  them,  indeed  between  all  communities,  will 
enable  the  apprehension  and  punishment  of  the  offenders. 
Though  it  is  now  clearly  established  that  extradition  should  be 
granted  for  misdemeanors  as  readily  as  for  felonies,  the  public 
authorities  are  frequently  very  lax  in  demanding  the  return  of 
the  criminal,  and  particularly  in  appropriating  the  moneys  neces- 
sary to  secure  quick  and  efficacious  results.  They  must  be  stimu- 
lated to  an  appreciation,  both  of  the  entirely  disproportionate 
expense  that  the  dependency  of  the  wife  and  babies  entails  on 
some  one  and  of  the  deterrent  value  of  a  few  examples  of  swift 
and  severe  punishment.  True  it  is  that  a  conviction  is  often  diffi- 
cult; the  wife  forgives  too  readily.  But  under  our  present  laws 
she  has  all  to  gain  and  little  to  lose  by  forgiveness.  To  imprison 
the  man  does  not  bring  her  food  and  shelter;  to  try  him  again 
may  do  so.  Could  he  be  put  at  hard  labor  and  the  fruits  of  that 
labor  be  applied  to  the  family  support,  a  project  frequently  urged 
and  one  which  ought  clearly  to  be  adopted — a  better  condition 
would  gradually  obtain.  A  broad  publicity  would  not  only  shame 
many  a  man  to  a  return,  but  it  would  lead  to  rapid  detection. 
The  Yiddish  newspapers  especially  have  been  and  can  be  of  the 
greatest  assistance.  But  whilst  it  is  important  to  punish  the  de- 
serter, we  must  not  overlook  the  conditions  that  too  often  lead 
tho  man  astray. 

The  present  generation  of  children  must  receive  the  training 
and  education  that  will  create  a  healthy  dissatisfaction  with 
crowded  unsanitary  conditions— that  will  enable  the  girls  to 
make  the  home,  however  poor  and  simple,  as  attractive  as  the 
cafes,  that  will  teach  them  to  cook,  to  sew,  to  be  the  real  com- 
panion to  the  husband,  the  thrifty  housewife,  the  helpful  mother. 

The  work  of  Jewish  charity  must  become  more  and  more  pre- 
ventive instead  of  merely  palliative;  to  strike  at  the  roots  of  an 
evil,  to  suppress  it,  to  save  the  coming  generations,  may  be  more 
expensive  than  to  patch  up  the  damaged  wrecks  of  humanity ;  and 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  31 

the  results  are  less  readily  seen  in  statistical  reports ;  to  make  a 
man  self-sustaining  is  at  the  start  more  costly  than  to  give  him 
alms,  but  we  are  all  agreed  that  in  the  long  run  it  is  cheaper  and. 
theoretically,  we  are  all  doing  it.  Alas,  the  practice  falls  far 
short  of  the  theory  in  most  of  our  communities.  Even  when  we 
have  reached  the  stage  of  employing  a  superintendent,  our  boards 
of  eminent  citizens  too  often  are  guided  by  their  intuitive  concep- 
tions of  relief  management,  based  on  tradition  rather  than  by  his 
advice  based  on  training,  experience  and  study. 

We  have  not  yet  thoroughly  comprehended  the  need  of  experts 
in  this  work.  Our  problems  are  extremely  complex.  They  re- 
quire years  of  study,  both  in  the  school  and  in  the  field.  Real 
experience  cannot  be  gained  by  merely  watching  and  talking  with 
the  applicants  for  relief  in  the  relief  offices.  Homes  must  be 
visited  again  and  again;  the  environments  must  become  well 
known ;  friendly  relations  must  be  established  with  the  members 
of  the  family.  Only  the  trained  worker  can  do  this  thoroughly. 
In  New  York,  Chicago,  Boston  and  St.  Louis  schools  of  philan- 
thropy have  been  founded.  The  students  are  also  afforded  the 
opportunity  to  inspect  and  to  take  part  in  the  practical  work  of 
diverse  organizations.  We  have  established  scholarships  to  enable 
young  men  and  women  desirous  of  entering  upon  professional 
careers  in  charity  to  obtain  this  training.  We  have  had  more 
difficulty  in  securing  the  right  parties  than  in  raising  the  needed 
funds.  Our  Scholarship  Committee  would  gladly  grant  its  aid 
to  one  or  more  men  or  women  having  the  necessary  preliminary 
education. 

While  the  trained  superintendents  are  essential  as  guides,  the 
hope  for  a  betterment  in  the  future  is,  in  my  judgment,  in  the 
Jewish  women.  No  one  who  attended  the  sessions  of  the  National 
Council  last  December 'failed  to  carry  away  the  conviction  that 
they  are  studying  our  problems  carefully  and  fundamentally. 
The  papers  presented  were  of  the  highest  type-,  the  discussions 
evidenced  a  breadth  of  view,  a  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  our 
wards  and  a  grasp  of  the  most  modern  methods  of  coping  with 
the  evils  that  are  the  best  guarantee  for  the  future.  We  welcome 
to  our  Conference  all  of  the  twenty-five  organizations  that  have 
joined  us  since  the  last  meeting,  but  none  more  than  that  in- 


32  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

fluential  and  highly  valued  body,  the  National  Council  of 
Jewish  Women.  The  women  have  been  the  chief  promoters  of 
some  of  the  newer  forms  of  preventive  work.  They  have  estab- 
lished much-needed  homes  for  orphaned  working  girls — homes 
that  are  really  places  of  rest,  recreation  and  comfort,  in  which 
the  girls  and  women  find  these  genuine  pleasures  so  essential  to 
their  happiness;  without  which  their  thirst  for  entertainment 
drives  so  many  of  them  in  our  large  cities  to  the  public  dance 
halls  and  to  their  ruin.  They  are  guarding  the  female  immi- 
grants from  the  scoundrels  who  lie  in  wait  to  take  advantage  of 
their  ignorance  and  innocence.  They  are  no  longer  pointing 
the  finger  of  scorn  and  shame  at  the  fallen  victims;  sympathy 
and  love  are  finding  them  a  home  wherein,  under  watchful  care 
and  instruction,  they  are  being  redeemed  and  saved  to  them- 
selves and  to  society,  and  fitted  to  pursue  trades  that  will  give 
them  a  decent  livelihood. 

To  the  administration  of  the  Juvenile  Court  laws  everywhere 
the  women  are  the  greatest  support.  As  probation  officers  and 
friendly  visitors  they  are  Avatching  over  the  coming  generation 
of  men  and  women,  bringing  them  back  to  the  paths  of  rectitude, 
encouraging  them  to  change  their  habits,  aiding  them  to  find 
employment,  taking  them  into  their  own  homes,  and  in  every 
way  helping  to  eradicate  the  evils  that*  have  led  to  the  wrong- 
doing. As  guides  to  the  children,  as  friends  to  the  parents,  they 
are  giving  of  their  time  and  their  thoughts  and  their  sympathies : 
they  are  indeed  doing  God's  work  on  earth.  But  let  it  not  be 
thought  for  a  moment  that  the  sacrifice  in  one  sense  is  without 
its  compensation.  No  true,  friendly  visitor  but  will  gladly  ac- 
knowledge that  she  is  receiving  more  than  she  is  giving;  the 
broader  outlook  on  life,  the  knowledge  soon  acquired  that  the 
lines  of  wealth  and  poverty  do  not  separate  the  worthy  from  the 
unworthy,  the  giver  from  the  recipient,  the  helper  from  the  aided, 
will  be  powerful  influences  in  her  own  development  and  in  that 
of  her  children. 

We  must  not,  in  our  pride,  hide  the  facts  which  are  brought 
out  daily  in  the  juvenile  and  police  courts.  Delinquency  is  on 
the  increase  among  our  boys ;  no  longer  is  the  Jewish  girl  a  syn- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  33 

onym  for  virtue.     This  condition  brings  with  it  two  problems— 
the  care  of  the  delinquent,  the  prevention  of  delinquency. 

We  had  hoped  that  the  Hon.  Julius  Mayer,  Attorney  General 
of  New  York,  at  one  time  Judge,  and  a  most  excellent  judge,  of 
the  Juvenile  Court,  founder  and  president  of  the  New  York 
Jewish  Protectory  for  delinquents,  would  address  us  to-night  on 
the  care  of  the  delinquents,  but  he  has  been  unavoidably  de- 
tained. Primarily  the  care  of  these  children  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  State,  but  frequently  delinquent  children  are  committed  to 
private  institutions.  The  facilities  that  the  State  affords  too 
often  fall  short  of  the  needs ;  the  aim  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  not 
to  punish  and  imprison,  but  to  train  and  to  educate,  can  be  car- 
ried out  only  if  the  institutions  are  really  schools-,  not  prisons. 
In  most  cities  it  has  become  necessary,  from  the  lack  of  Jewish 
institutions  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  provisions  made  by  the 
State,  to  send  our  children  to  institutions  under  non-Jewish  de- 
nominational control.  New  York,  through  its  new  protectory, 
aims  to  check  this  practice.  My  own  view  is  that  a  united  public 
opinion  should  exercise  sufficient  pressure  on  the  public  authori- 
ties to  provide  full  and  complete  facilities  for  all,  but  until  that 
is  done,  it  may  be  desirable  to  maintain  a  Jewish  protectory. 
Smaller  communities  in  each  State  might  band  together  and 
establish  a  farm  school  for  delinquents,  just  as  years  ago  the 
Cleveland  Orphan  Asylum  was  founded,  and  is  now  maintained 
by  a  number  of  cities. 

The  more  important  question,  however,  is  not  what  we  shall 
do  to  redeem  the  delinquent,  but  how  shall  we  check  delin- 
quency ?  Primarily,  we  must  study  its  causes ;  we  must  follow  the 
conditions  that  produce  the  lapse.  At  times  they  are  susceptible 
of  medical  treatment;  generally  the  home  conditions  resulting 
from  poverty  or  death  and  depriving  the  child  of  proper  parental 
care,  sometimes,  but  not  very  often  among  the  Jews,  parental 
depravity,  is  responsible  for  the  wrongs  of  the  child;  too  fre- 
quently the  natural  environments  of  the  section  in  which  the  lad 
lives  fully  account  for  them.  All  that  is  implied  in  the  housing 
problem  so  vividly  portrayed  at  the  sessions  of  the  National 
Council  is  of  great  moment  in  this  connection,  as,  indeed,  in  all 
lines  of  our  work. 


34  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

Though  the  stream  of  immigration  may  in  time  be  partially 
diverted  from  our  large  cities,  and  with  bettered  conditions  in 
Europe  be  greatly  checked,  nevertheless  we  cannot  hope  radically 
to  relieve  the  congestion  of  our  so-called  Ghetto  districts.  As 
the  prosperity  of  the  people  and  their  demands  on  life  grow, 
there  is  a  natural  tendency  to  seek  more  comfortable  quarters. 
But  newcomers  who  cannot  be  persuaded  to  immigrate  elsewhere 
are  ever  ready  to  take  their  places. 

"When  the  physical  surroundings  so  react  on  the  child  as  to 
produce  delinquency  or  dependency,  the  Juvenile  Courts  can 
aid  by  conditioning  his  return  to  the  home  on  the  removal  of 
the  family  to  other  sections  of  the  city.  Private  aid,  too,  in 
paying  increased  rentals  in  better  localities  to  families  which 
give  promise  of  there  becoming  self-supporting  will  doubt- 
less accomplish  much.  But  more  must  be  done.  We  must 
bring  in  the  good  if  we  want  to  drive  out  the  bad. 

The  lad  whose  natural  fondness  for  sport  and  athletics  is 
encouraged  in  the  gymnasium,  the  boys'  club,  the  athletic  field, 
is  easily  kept  from  the  gambling  dens  that  infest  these  regions 
and  ultimately  lead  to  theft  and  other  delinquencies;  the 
young  girl  who  craves  beautiful  surroundings,  and  above  all  the 
dance,  should  not  be  driven  from  the  dingy,  over-crowded  home 
into  gaudy  palaces  of  vice  and  shame  from  lack  of  decent 
places  of  amusement. 

Technical  and  trade  schools  are  the  most  valuable  agencies  in 
training  the  young  for  successful  industrial  careers ;  settlements 
at  first  attract  the  earnest  children  who  are  in  small  danger  of 
going  wrong,  but  when  properly  conducted,  forming  a  center  of 
light  and  joy,  with  the  workers  living  in  the  house  and  being  a 
real  integral  part  of  the  neighborhood,  they  can  gradually  draw 
in  those  who  are  not  eager  for  book  learning,  but  have  the  natural 
desire  of  every  healthy  young  person  for  pleasures,  and  stimulate 
them  to  higher  aims. 

In  some  way,  however,  proper  provision  for  decent  recreation, 
for  the  game  and  the  dance,  the  play  and  the  song,  must  be 
made.  And  in  satisfying  the  cravings  of  youth  we  should  not 
neglect  the  needs  of  the  parents.  They,  too,  want  a  change  from 
the  ofttime  dismal  home.  If  thev  can  have  a  share  in  their 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  35 

children's  joys,  perhaps  there  may  be  averted  that  separation  in 
outlook  and  aspiration,  with  its  loosening  of  the  family  tie  and  its 
weakening  of  the  parental  authority,  that  is  now  responsible  for 
many  of  the  evils. 

In  furthering  those  great  preventive  movements  that  are  en- 
deavoring to  make  headway  everywhere,  the  establishment  of 
playgrounds  and  parks,  the  betterment  of  our  public  schools  by 
the  general  introduction  therein  of  manual  training,  by  the  un- 
graded rooms,  the  smaller  classes,  the  free  evening  lectures,  the 
vacation  school,  we  must  join  hands  with  our  fellow  citizens. 

"We  can  gain  much  by  a  knowledge  of  their  methods,  par- 
ticularly in  preventive  work,  whilst  they  can  perhaps  learn  from 
us  in  the  management  of  institutions  and  in  the  federation  of 
organizations. 

The  federation  movement,  originating  in  Cincinnati  in  1899, 
is  spreading  rapidly  throughout  our  country.  New  York  is 
seriously  considering  its  adoption.  We  of  the  smaller  cities  can 
offer  no  advice  to  the  metropolis;  her  people  know  their  own 
needs  and  how  best  to  meet  them.  But  we  can  say  in  encourage- 
ment of  the  federation  scheme  that  no  city  in  which  it  has  been 
adopted  has  abandoned  it ;  in  none,  so  far  as  we  know,  is  its  feasi- 
bility and  superiority  to  the  old  system  even  questioned.  That 
it  has  increased  the  subscription  lists  and  eliminated  waste  is 
generally  conceded ;  that  no  partiality  has  been  shown  to  any  con- 
stituent body  is  apparent  from  the  lack  of  complaint;  that  it 
does  not  prevent  new  and  needed  undertakings,  Chicago's  ex- 
perience in  founding  a  Home  for  the  Friendless  and  in  rebuilding 
its  hospital  at  a  cost  of  half  a  million  dollars  abundantly  demon- 
strates. 

If  New  York  adopts  either  federation  or  some  other  scheme  of 
financial  centralization  of  its  Jewish  charities,  the  very  greatest 
impetus  will  be  given  to  the  movement.  And  if  she  succeeds  in 
uniting  all  elements  of  her  people  in  one  body,  a  new  mark  will 
be  set  for  most,  if  not  all,  of  those  cities  in  which  an  Associated 
Jewish  Charities  has  been  established. 

Whatever  be  our  superiority  in  financial  organization  and. 
management,  we  have  hitherto  lagged  behind  in  the  placing  out 
of  our  orphans. 


36  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

I  shall  not  attempt  a  discussion  of  the  orphan  asylum  ques- 
tion. We  threshed  that  out  thoroughly  at  the  last  Conference. 
But,  unless  we  are  to  build  new  asylums,  homes  must  be  found. 
New  York  had  begun  this  work  in  small  measure  shortly  before 
the  last  Conference.  Since  then,  however,  a  real  advance  has 
been  made.  Dr.  Bernstein  will  demonstrate  to  us  that  good 
homes  are  readily  obtained  for  Jewish  orphans,  both  for  adoption 
and  for  board.  AVhat  holds  true  in  New  York  will  be  found  true 
elsewhere.  The  experience  of  the  committee  which  had  antici- 
pated the  arrival  of  five  hundred  of  the  Russian  orphans  of  1905. 
and  had  determined  that  they  should  not  receive  the  congregate 
love  and  care  of  an  institution,  but  the  individualized  affection 
of  a  Jewish  home,  the  ready  response  that  their  appeal  met  with 
in  all  sections  of  the  country  is  a  sufficient  guarantee  that  with 
the  necessary  funds— no  more  than  it  takes  to  maintain  institu- 
tions—and right  direction,  no  difficulty  will  be  experienced. 

Chicago  is  soon  to  follow  in  the  lines  of  New  York,  though  with- 
out the  financial  assistance  which  the  latter  city  grants  to  all  of 
its  wards  from  the  public  treasury. 

Cincinnati,  ever  in  the  lead,  has  sent  no  children  to  an  orphan 
asylum  in  several  years.  There,  as  in  some  other  communities, 
widows  are  granted  pensions  so  as  to  enable  them  to  keep  their 
children  at  home,  and  not  only  to  keep  them,  but  to  rear  them. 
For  the  problem  is  only  half  solved  if  the  allowance  is  so  inade- 
quate as  to  compel  the  mothers  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  wage  earn- 
ers whose  children,  deprived  of  the  parental  care  and  oversight. 
are  rapidly  increasing  the  truant  and  the  delinquent  classes 
Home  is  the  place  for  the  mother  as  well  as  for  the  child.  If  the 
number  of  her  own  children  does  not  justify  a  living  allowance. 
add  to  them  by  giving  her  the  supervision  of  some  full  orphans. 
Two  problems  are  thus  solved  at  one  stroke,  and  rightly  solved 

But  Cincinnati  is  doing  more  than  this.  She  is  cheating  death 
of  its  harvest ;  she  is  saving  the  family  head. 

Tuberculosis  is  chiefly  responsible  for  our  rapidly  increasing 
number  of  orphans.  It  is  to-day  the  gravest  problem  that  con- 
fronts the  charity  worker.  Our  entire  country  is  vitally  inter- 
ested in  it.  No  charity  conference  fails  to  devote  a  session  to  a 
discussion  of  its  many  phases.  The  value  of  local  sanatoria  will 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  37 

be  explained  to  us  by  Dr.  Sachs;  their  efficacy  in  the  treatment 
of  incipient  cases  is  undoubted.  They  are  our  hope  for  the  great 
masses.  But  no  patient  who  can  possibly  get  to  Denver  or  some 
other  favorable  location,  is  content  to  remain  at  home.  And  no 
wiser  expenditure  can  be  made  than  by  sending  the  curable  pa- 
tient to  the  National  Hospital  at  Denver,  provided  the  example 
of  Cincinnati  be  followed.  She  does  not  rest  content  with  send- 
ing the  husband  and  father  to  the  hospital  for  six  months  or 
more.  When  he  is  ready  to  be  released,  she  keeps  him  in  Denver 
or  the  surrounding  country;  his  family  is  sent  to  him;  he  is  es- 
tablished in  his  trade  or  business  and  until  he  can  become  self- 
sustaining  in  the  new  community  he  and  his  family  are  ade- 
quately supported. 

A  costly  method,  you  say;  true.  But  you  grant  it  is  the 
humane,  the  genuine  aid.  Figure  out  the  expense  of  a  relapse  if 
he  returned  home  to  his  former  unfavorable  surroundings.  Calcu- 
late the  cost  of  caring  for  the  widow  and  children  if  death  claimed 
its  victim. 

The  experienced  business  man  does  not  underrate  the  value  of 
discounting  his  bills ;  Cincinnati  gets  a  heavy  discount  by  reason 
of  her  large  orginal  outlay.  But  if  it  were  not  the  wise  plan  from 
the  business  standpoint,  if  it  were  in  the  end  more  costly,  should 
we  not  in  every  city  aim  to  follow  this  noble  example  ?  Here,  if 
anywhere,  is  manifested  the  true  spirt  of  Jewish  charity— the 
spirit  that  asks  not  what  is  the  cost,  but  what  is  the  result. 

To  relieve  is  important ;  to  prevent  is  vital  for  the  future.  After 
all,  it  is  impossible  to  send  a  great  number  out  West ;  much  time 
will  elapse  before  we  have  sufficient  local  facilities  for  the  proper 
treatment  of  all  incipient  cases  and  the  segregation  of  the  in- 
curable ones.  Until  we  bring  sunshine  and  air  into  our  con- 
gested districts,  until  the  model  tenements  and  the  small  homes 
supplant  the  wretched  quarters  into  which  so  many  of  our  people 
are  driven,  until  the  prophylactic  measures  essential  to  stay  the 
spread  of  the  disease  are  enforced,  no  real  advance  can  be  mado. 
Here,  as  in  all  departments  of  philanthropic  work,  an  ounce  of 
prevention  is  worth  the  pound  of  cure. 

What  shall  be  said  of  that  magnificent  hospital  in  Denver — 
our  hospital— for  it  is  truly  national.  Its  management  and  its 


38  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

staff  deserve  the  highest  commendation.  The  importance  of  lim- 
iting its  aid  to  curable  cases  is  demonstrated  by  the  cheerful, 
hopeful,  comfortable  feeling  that  prevades  its  walls,  and  that  of 
itself  is  the  best  medicine  for  the  patients.  Surely  it  deserves 
our  united  support. 

Its  wise  and  stringent  rules  in  regard  to  admission,  added  to 
other  causes,  have  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  Jewish  Con- 
sumptives' Relief  Society,  also  a  national  organization.  Much 
good  is  accomplished  at  this  sanitarium,  though  the  society  has 
been  hampered  in  its  work  by  inadequate  funds.  The  tent  plan 
adopted  at  first  is  now  seen  to  be  insufficient  for  certain  cases. 
The  expressed  object  of  the  society  is  to  care  for  ad- 
vanced cases.  No  examination  in  the  home  city  is  required ; 
no  case  is  rejected  if  the  applicant  succeeds  in  reaching  Denver. 
That  a  hospital  for  advanced  and  incurable  cases  is  highly  desira- 
ble is  conceded  by  all;  th.e  bringing  together,  however,  of  ad- 
vanced and  incipient  cases  is  obviously  dangerous  to  the  latter. 
Moreover,  though  incurables  are  not  expressly  invited  to  Denver, 
the  knowledge  that  they  will  be  cared  for  tends  to  bring  them 
there.  There  is  a  real  danger  of  arousing  adverse  public  senti- 
ment in  Colorado  if  this  continues.  That  this  institution  comes 
nearer  to  a  Kosher  establishment  than  the  other  is  beyond  ques- 
tion; that  both  fall  far  short  of,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
cannot  possibly  be  maintained  on  a  Kosher  basis,  is  equally  clear. 

If  I  have  pointed  out  some  dangers  involved  in  the  newer  in- 
stitution, I  do  not  hesitate  to  praise  the  self-sacrificing  work  of 
its  managers  and  staff,  or  to  applaud  their  most  humane  an.l 
charitable  purposes.  Could  it  be  strictly  a  hospital  for  advanced 
cases  that  have  been  in  Denver  six  months  or  a  year  it  would 
have  a  most  valuable  mission  and  could  claim  the  support  that 
the  other  hospital  receives.  Its  funds  hitherto  have  come  largely 
from  the  immigrants  of  the  last  quarter  century. 

Every  advance  movement  from  within  their  ranks  should  re- 
ceive the  utmost  encouragement  from  without ;  the  creation  of  the 
institutions  which  the  people  themselves  feel  are  necessary  to 
their  advancement,  by  their  own  efforts  under  their  own  leaders, 
strengthen  and  develop  them  and  prepare  them  the  better  for  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  39 

responsibilities  of  citizenship.  Each  generation  must  learn  from 
its  own  mistakes ;  the  methods  which  the  Jews  of  fifty  years  ago 
and  their  descendants  adopted  in  their  works  of  mutual  help, 
do  not  answer  the  more  complex  needs  of  the  people  of  our  con- 
gested cities  of  to-day.  But  while  the  Russian  Jews  must  and 
will  work  out  their  own  path  in  American  life,  there  surely  ought 
to  be  the  most  active  co-operation  between  them  and  their  co- 
religionists. Too  long  separated  into  mutually  mistrustful  bands 
we  have  at  last  come  together,  united  by  a  common  grief.  May 
the  bond  of  union,  cemented  with  the  blood  of  our  brethren  in 
Russia,  never  again  be  broken ;  may  we  learn  to  know  one  another 
better,  and  knowing,  trust  one  another  the  more ;  divided  though 
we  may  be  in  our  religious  thought  and  practice,  into  orthodox, 
conservative  and  radical,  in  our  hopes  and  aspirations  into 
Zionists  and  anti-Zionists  and  Territorialists,  let  us  henceforth 
be  united  in  our  works  of  charity  and  philanthopy,  all  pledged 
to  the  protection  and  help  of  our  fellow  Jews  in  trouble  or  dis- 
tress, here  and  in  foreign  lands,  all  joining  with  our  fellow  citi- 
zens of  every  creed  in  every  philanthropic  or  uplifting  movement 
that  will  lighten  the  load  of  the  burdened,  ease  the  troubled 
minds  of  the  distressed,  give  solace  to  the  suffering  and  hope  to 
the  despairing,  that  will  eradicate  evil  and  wrong  and  produce  a 
generation  of  American  citizens  worthy  of  their  heritage. 

And  surely  nowhere  in  the  world  can  the  foundations  for  such 
a  union  more  appropriately  be  laid  than  in  Philadelphia,  the 
mother  city  of  American  liberty.  For  the  welcome  she  has  ac- 
corded us,  we  offer  her  our  heartiest,  thanks.  If  our  gathering 
together  within  her  gates  shall  stimulate  her  people  to  renewed 
endeavors  in  the  ever-widening  fields  of  preventive  philanthropy, 
we  shall  feel  that  in  a  measure  we  shall  have  compensated  her 
for  the  generous  hospitality  that  awaits  us  this  week. 

ADDRESS  OP  CYRUS  L.  SULZBERGER. 

Mr.  Chairman.  Ladies  and  Gentlemen.— It  is  always  a  pleasure 
to  me  to  come  back  home,  and  it  will  always  be  coming  back  home 
to  come  to  Philadelphia.  It  gives  me  particular  pleasure  to-night 
to  be  in  my  native  city  and  report  to  you  that  the  work  in  which 


40  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

1  have  been  engaged,  with  zealous  and  hard-working  associates, 
is  a  work  in  which  we  would  never  have  succeeded  had  we  not  re- 
ceived, as  we  did,  the  earnest  and  hearty  co-operation  of  loyal 
Jews  throughout  the  United  States. 

At  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities  four  years  ago, 
the  need  of  the  work  of  the  Removal  Office  was  presented  to  the 
delegates  assembled  in  the  city  of  Detroit.  It  was  then  pointed 
out  that  the  manner  in  which  the  work  was  at  that  time  being 
done  was  inadequate,  because  of  the  lack  of  co-operation  on  the 
part  of  the  Jews  of  the  interior  communities.  An  appeal  was 
made  to  them  to  aid  in  this  work,  and  this  appeal,  I  am  glad  to 
report,  was  not  unheeded.  At  the  time  of  that  meeting  the 
method  of  procedure  in  the  Removal  Office  was  to  send  several 
men  traveling  throughout  the  country,  and  get  orders  for  immi- 
grants of  a  specific  kind,  and  we  would  get,  say,  from  Kalamazoo. 
an  order  for  a  carpenter;  then  we  would  bestir  ourselves  in  the 
city  of  New  York  to  try  to  find  a  carpenter,  and  on  that  particu- 
liar  day  we  got  bookbinders,  watchmakers  and  tinsmiths,  but,  lo 
and  behold !  no  carpenters,  and  after  a  lapse  of  two,  three  or  four 
days,  a  carpenter  would  appear,  and  we  would  send  him  to  Kala- 
mazoo. Now,  it  took  two  or  three  days  for  the  order  to  come,  and 
three  or  four  days  for  the  carpenter  to  be  found,  and  then  three 
or  four  days  for  him  to  get  to  Kalamazoo,  and  when  he  got  there 
the  place  was  filled,  and  we  had  a  carpenter  who  had  been 
out  of  a  place  in  New  York  now  out  of  a  job  in  Kalamazoo. 
That  didn't  seem  to  us  an  entirely  practical  way  of  doing  the 
work,  and  we  thereupon  resolved  that  instead  of  trying  to  fit  the 
New  York  carpenter  into  the  Kalamazoo  job — the  carpenter  being 
in  the  one  place  and  the  job  in  the  other— that  we  would  send  the 
man  to  the  place  first  and  get  him  the  job  afterwards.  It  seemed 
to  us  that  in  most  communities  there  would  be  jobs  every  now 
and  then,  not  only  for  carpenters,  but  for  blacksmiths,  tinsmith?;, 
plumbers,  and  all  other  kinds  of  persons.  So  there  were  two 
things  we  had  to  do ;  first  we  had  to  arouse  the  community  to  the 
fact  that  it  was  not  helping  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  to  send 
for  a  carpenter,  when  it  needed  a  carpenter.  At  that  time  they 
wanted  a  carpenter  more  than  we  wanted  to.  send  one.  The  real 
thing  for  them  to  do  was  to  bestir  themselves  to  find  a  job  for  a 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH   CHARITIES.  41 

poor  Jewish  immigrant  out  of  a  job.  That  was  their  job,  and  i'<; 
was  our  first  duty  to  educate  the  communities  to  the  fact  that 
we  wanted  their  co-operation,  so  that  they  might  help  us  find  em- 
ployment for  men  out  of  employment. 

The  next  job  was  to  make  it  possible  for  them  to  do  this,  and 
we  made  this  possible  by  securing  employment  agencies  in  the 
various  cities  large  enough  to  justify  our  doing  so ;  these  agencies 
having  no  other  business  than  finding  situations  for  the  people 
sent  to  them  by  the  Industrial  Removal  Office,  and  when  we  send 
two,  three  or  a  maximum  of  five  persons  to  a  given  city,  we  know 
that  they  will  be  received  by  our  employment  agent,  and  he  will 
do  nothing  except  take  these  two  or  three  or  five  persons — 
rarely  so  many  as  five — usually  two  or  three  men— take  these 
two  or  three  to  the  various  industrial  establishments  with 
which  he  has  made  connection  previous  to  their  arrival,  and 
his  business  is,  as  I  say,  to  take  these  two  or  three  men,,  this  one 
a  plumber,  that  one  a  carpenter,  and  the  third  a  woodworker,  to 
the  plumber,  carpenter  and  cabinet  maker,  until  he  succeeds  in 
finding  him  employment,  and  our  experience  is  that  rarely  is  a 
man  out  of  employment  more  than  two  or  three  days  after  he  has 
arrived  at  the  city  to  which  he  is  consigned. 

In  this  way  we  have  distributed  from  the  time  this  work  began 
in  1901  up  to  the  close  of  last  year,  in  our  agencies  in  twenty-two 
States,  and  through  voluntary  efforts  in  other  places,  32,491  per- 
sons from  the  city  of  New  York.  These  individuals  have  been 
sent  to  361  cities  and  towns  throughout  the  United  States,  some 
to  every  State  and  Territory  in  the  United  States,  and  some  to 
Canada.  The  maximum  sent  to  any  one  State  is  2,700 — to  the 
State  of  Missouri.  The  minimum  to  any  one  State  is  1 — to  the 
State  of  Nevada;  two  to  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  but  no 
State  in  the  Union  to  which  there  have  not  been  sent  some.  Fifty- 
six,  for  instance,  to  Oklahoma ;  45  to  the  Indian  Territory.  Last 
year  there  were  sent  to  335  places  less  than  50  persons  to  a  place, 
and  to  26  places  more  than  50  persons  to  a  place. 

Now  22,000  people  sent  away  is  in  itself  a  considerable  number, 
but  22,000  by  no  means  measures  the  total  number ;  of  this  num- 
ber 6,700  were  married  men,  sent  away  without  their  families, 
1,100  having  their  families  in  New  York  and  5,600  having  their 


42  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

families  still  in  Europe.  Our  experience  is  that  when  you  send 
away  a  man  without  his  family  you  are  giving  him  an  excellent 
incentive  to  work.  There  is  a  very  large  number  of  young  men  in 
this  country  who  are  fond  of  railroad  travel,  and  they  enjoy  the 
experience,  and  when  we  sent  out  young  fellows,  strapping 
young  fellows,  17  and  18  years  old,  they  would  go  and  work  until 
they  saved  up  money  enough  to  come  back ;  and  then  they  would 
come  back.  We  are  not  so  fond  of  sending  young  men.  We  send 
away  not  more  than  40  per  cent,  of  those  persons  who  apply  to  be 
sent.  In  order  words,  if  we  sent  all  that  come  to  the  removal  office 
we  would  ship  more  than  two  and  one-half  times  as  many  as  we 
really  do,  but  we  send  people  who  come  with  special  references, 
and  we  find  the  best  nucleus  for  drawing  others  is  the  man  who 
will  work  industriously  because  he  has  an  object,  and  that  is  the 
man  who  has  left  the  wife  and  baby  behind.  I  know  all  the 
stories  about  wife  desertion,  but  I  tell  you  this,  the  number  who 
want  to  be  with  their  wives  and  families  are  1,000  before  there  is 
one  who  wants  to  run  away  from  that  wife  and  family.  And 
when  you  send  a  man  away  and  his  wife  is  in  Essex  street,  or 
Norfolk  street,  or  in  Odessa,  or  some  other  unpronounceable  place 
in  Russia,  we  know  we  have  established  a  man  who  is  going  to 
work  hard  and  earnestly  to  bring  that  wife  and  baby  to  the  town 
where  he  is,  and  this  is,  the  result :  That  of  these  married  men 
whom  we  have  sent  away  1,500  have  sent  for  their  families,  and 
see  how  this  number  grows  year  by  year :  In  1901,  104  families 
were  removed  to  join  the  husbands  who  had  been  previously  sent ; 
in  1902,  237  families  were  removed;  in  1903,  346  families  were 
removed ;  in  1904,  400  families  were  removed ;  in  1905,  406  fami- 
lies were  removed  to  join  the  husbands  who  had  been  previously 
sent. 

Each  year,  you  will  observe,  more  families  have  been  sent  to 
join  the  husband  who  has  been  previously  sent  out.  There  are 
5,200  families  who  have  yet  to  join  their  heads,  or  who  have 
already  joined  them  without  our  knowledge,  of  their  own  accord, 
these  5.200  families  representing  17,000  souls  approximately; 
add  to  the  22,000  who  have  been  sent  away,  the  17,000  remaining 
members  of  their  immediate  families  who  are  bound  to  join  them. 
Now,  of  these  22,000  persons,  how  many  have  stayed  away,  you 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  43 

will  ask.  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  more  than  20,000 
of  those  are  now  definitely  and  fixedly  engaged  either  in  the 
cities  to  which  we  have  sent  them,  or  in  the  near-by  cities,  because 
they  hear  of  opportunities  in  a  near-by  place  and  go  there.  That 
number  is  definitely  away  from  the  city  of  New  York.  Among 
the  other  things  that  we  learned,  besides  the  fact  that  young 
men  like  experience,  was  that  it  was  no  part  of  our  function  to 
be  strike-breakers.  On  the  eve  of  Lincoln's  birthday  four  years 
ago  Mr.  Bijur,  Dr.  Frankel,  Mr.  Isaacs  and  myself,  came  into  the 
Hebrew  Charities  to  attend  a  meeting  of  our  Executive  Commit- 
tee, and  found  our  application  room  filled  with  several  hundred 
men,  and  upon  inquiry  we  learned  that  these  were  men  who  had 
been  sent  out  by  the  Removal  Office  and  returned  to  New  York. 
So  we  sat  down,  we  four  trustees,  to  inquire  why  these  men  had 
come  back,  and  from  4  o'clock  that  afternoon  until  midnight  we 
sat  there  and  listened  to  the  tales  of  these  men,  and  we  found 
that  the  story  was  in  almost  every  instance  the  same.  They  had 
been  sent  out  to  take  the  place  of  strikers,  and  when  the  strike 
was  over  the  old  men  were  given  back  their  jobs  and  the  scabs 
were  discharged.  Now,  we  are  in  the  Industrial  Removal  Of- 
fice, neither  labor  union  nor  non-labor  union ;  we  have  no  concern 
with  scab  or  union  help,  but  we  have  with  the  fact  that  the 
men  we  send  are  to  be  given  permanent  employment,  and  we  have 
learned  by  experience  that  the  men  sent  to  take  the  place  of 
strikers  do  not  get  permanent  employment;  therefore  it  is  not  a 
good  thing  to  fill  a  striker's  place,  and  we  don't  do  it,  and  our 
agents  are  instructed,  all  over  the  country,  not  to  put  men  in  as 
strike-breakers,  because  we  don't  want  our  men  put  into  a  job 
for  two  weeks  or  a  month  and  then  have  them  thrown  back  on 
our  hands  after  the  disagreement  has  been  adjusted.  We  have 
sent  out,  then,  not  to  take  the  place  of  strikers,  but  to  earn  their 
livelihood  in  the  ordinary  occupations  all  over  the  United  States, 
13,400  adult  male  wage  earners,  in  addition  to  which  there  is  a 
considerable  proportion  of  adult  children  whom  we  are  not 
counting. 

There  is  a  notion  that  all  of  the  immigrant  Jews  are 
tailors;  that  the  only  thing  any  Jew  who  comes  from  Russia 
or  Roumania  can  do  is  use  the  sewing  machine.  Now  you 


44  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

could  not  make  any  greater  mistake  than  that.  Of  those  sent 
out  last  year,  there  being  3,500,  22  per  cent,  were  engaged  in 
building  trades,  and  only  15  per  cent,  in  the  needle  industry. 
In  other  words,  while  there  were  535  engaged  in  needle  industry 
in  all  its  forms,  there  were  776,  or  one-half  more  engaged  in  the 
building  trades.  There  are  74  farmers,  868  in  miscellaneous 
trades,  and  775  unskilled  workmen.  The  miscellaneous  trades 
covered  a  great  number  of  industries;  46  cabinetmakers. 
31  coopers,  2  engineers,  14  electricians,  25  harnessmakers,  98  iron, 
brass  and  copper  workers,  plumbers,  tanners,  wood  workers,  wood 
carvers,  almost  any  industry  you  can  imagine.  It  runs  some 
forty  odd  industries  in  which  they  are  engaged,  and  they  are  not 
unskilled  workmen  in  their  industries.  I  learned  with  a  great 
deal  of  pleasure  that  when  it  was  contemplated  to  close  down  part 
of  a  works,  instructions  were  given  by  the  foremen  that  the  last 
to  be  laid  off  were  those  who  had  been  put  in  through  the  In- 
dustrial Removal  Office;  the  work  they  were  doing  was  so  satis- 
factory they  were  the  last  that  he  wanted  to  lay  off.  We  have 
reports  from  some  of  the  people  themselves  as  to  the  success  with 
which  they  met. 

I  want  to  tell  you  of  one  more  personal  case.  At  the  time  I 
was  engaged  in  preparing  this  report,  I  was  sitting  at  my  desk 
and  the  manager  of  the  Removal  Office  came  over  and  handed 
me  a  letter  on  a  handsome  engraved  letter  head  from  Omaha 
a  ladies'  tailor,  who  wrote  to  us  asking  if  we  could  send  them  a 
good  ladies '  tailor.  Mr.  Bressler,  the  manager,  said  that  this  was 
one  of  our  eases,  and  I  looked  up  the  record  and  I  found  that 
this  was  a  man  who  had  been  ten  years  in  this  country  (we  don't 
often  send  out  men  who  had  been  here  so  long,  but  he  impressed 
us  favorably  and  we  sent  him).  He  had  been  ten  years  in  this 
country,  and  for  weeks  had  been  out  of  a  job,  and  was  sixty 
dollars  in  debt,  and  wanted  to  be  sent  away  so  that  he  could  try 
over  again  elsewhere.  Well,  he  had  no  friends  in  any  part  of 
the  United  States,  and  it  happened  that  on  that  day  or  a  day  or 
two  before,  we  had  sent  nobody  to  Omaha,  and  Omaha  was  upon 
our  list,  so  we  determined  to  send  this  man  to  Omaha.  Four 
weeks  later  he  sent  for  his  wife  and  family.  Two  weeks  there- 
after our  agent  in  Omaha  reported  that  the  man  was  earning  $25 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  45 

a  week.  This  was  in  September,  1904.  In  January,  1906,  we 
received  this  letter  from  him  and  we  sent  him  a  tailor.  A  few 
days  later  the  man  came  himself  to  New  York,  where  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  him,  and  he  came  to  find  two  more  ladies' 
tailors.  He  wanted  more  help,  and  we  selected  two  more  men  in 
the  offices  in  the  early  part  of  February.  On  the  23d  of  February 
he  wrote  to  us  that  he  had  made  a  contract  with  these  two  men — 
an  eleven  months '  contract,  guaranteeing  to  pay  one  $20  a  week,  a 
man  who  had  been  earning  $16  to  $18  when  employed,  the  other 
one  $15  a  week  who  had  been  four  months  in  the  country,  and 
had  never  earned  more  than  $5  a  week  in  New  York,  and  they 
both  wanted  their  families  sent  to  Omaha,  and  the  families  of 
both  followed  and  they  are  now  with  their  husbands ;  so  this  man, 
penniless*  and  in  debt  in  New  York,  has  now  established  himself 
in  business  in  Omaha,  and  has  taken  three  tailors  with  their  fami- 
lies from  New  York  to  Omaha,  and  they  are  all  doing  better  in 
Omaha  than  they  ever  did  in  New  York. 

Now  I  will  show  you  some  of  the  reports  our  agents  make  us. 
The  men  sent  to  Columbus,  Ohio,  between  February  11  and 
June  27,  1905,  had  by  the  end  of  December,  1905,  savings  in 
bank  ranging  from  $75  to  $300.  and  aggregating  $960.  not- 
withstanding that  three  of  them  were  sending  money  home  to 
Russia,  and  twelve  had  brought  their  families  over  from  Russia. 
A  man  sent  to  Memphis  in  1901,  now  owns  his  home  there.  Of 
nine  men  sent  to  Nashville,  three  have  their  own  stores;  two 
carpenters  sent  to  Indianapolis  had  savings  of  $800  and  $700 
respectively,  and  one  shoemaker  sent,  to  Indianapolis  owns  his 
own  home.  One  machinist  sent  to  Pittsburg  is  earning  $25  a 
week;  another  $4  a  day  and  a  watchmaker  is  earning  $15  a 
week.  Of  those  sent  to  Rochester,  six  have  bought  houses,  and 
others  have  bank  accounts,  not  including  stocks  of  merchandise, 
ranging  from  $300  to  $500.  Twenty-nine  men  sent  to  Washing- 
ton have  aggregate  savings  in  bank  and  real  estate,  amounting 
to  $8,000. 

We  feel  that  in  doing  this  work  we  are  doing  good  work,  but 
we  also  feel  that  we  are  only  scratching  the  surface.  We  have 
sent  away  17,000  persons  in  five  years,  and  I  made  that  statement 
and  you  applauded  it,  and  it  was  something;  yet  in  two  months 


46  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

35,000  Jews  have  arrived  in  the  city  of  New  York!  After  all, 
what  are  we  doing?  In  order  that  this  work  may  be  pushed — I 
am  addressing  myself  not  to  you  Philadelphians,  but  to  the 
delegates  from  out  of  the  city,  away  from  the  seaboard— in  order 
that  this  work  may  be  effective,  it  requires  your  co-operation  in 
every  way;  that  means  not  only  that  you  will  be  willing  to  re- 
ceive the  immigrants  who  are  sent,  it  means  you  must  be  willing 
to  receive  them  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  should  be  received,  so 
that  they  may  willingly  go  to  the  places  to  which  they  are  sent. 
Let  us  never  forget  that  there  would  be  no  need  for  this  immigra- 
tion, there  would  be  no  need  for  the  men  to  leave  their  families 
back  in  that  hell  of  Russia,  and  no  need  to  make  a  new  home  for 
them  here  were  it  not  for  their  fidelity  to  their  religion.  Remem- 
ber in  helping  make  a  new  home  for  them,  to  make  it  as  far  as  may 
be  in  such  a  way  that  they  may  be  true  to  their  religion,  as  they 
conceive  it.  It  does  not  make  any  difference  what  we  think 
about  whether  they  want  to  keep  the  dietary  laws,  or  this,  that  or 
the  other -thing.  It  is  not  for  us  to  pass  on  their  religious  con- 
victions. It  is  for  us  to  open  our  doors  and  hearts  to  them  on 
the  terms  in  which  they  read  Judaism,  not  on  the  terms  in  which 
we  would  read  it  for  them.  And  unless  we  open  our  hearts  to 
them  on  those  terms,  make  no  mistake,  unless  we  open  our  hearts 
to  them  on  those  terms  we  don't  open  them  at  all. 

MERCANTILE  CLUB,  10  A.  M.,  MAY  7.  1906. 
THE  PRESIDENT: 

In  the  absence  of  Dr.  Lee  K.  Frankel.  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Desertion,  who  is  at  present  en  route  to  San  Francisco 
on  behalf  of  this  Conference,  his  report  will  be  read  by  Mr. 
Charles  Zunser.  Agent  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New 
York  in  charge  of  Desertion  Cases. 


REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON  DESERTION. 

DR.  LEE  K.  FRANKEL,  Manager  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities 

of  the  City  of  New  York,  Chairman. 

The  problem  of  deserted  wives  and  children  is  neither  new  nor 
novel  to  the  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities.    At  the  first  meeting 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH   CHARITIES.  47 

of  the  Conference,  held  in  Chicago  in  1900,  the  Committee  on 
Desertions  presented  an  admirable  report,  in  which  was  out- 
lined the  status  of  the  desertion  situation  at  that  time,  and  a 
resume  of  the  legislation  in  various  States  directed  toward  pun- 
ishment of  deserters.  Several  suggestions  were  made  by  the 
Committee  in  the  hope  of  eradicating  desertion.  In  view  of  their 
timeliness,  they  are  repeated  here.  The  Committee  summarized 
these  questions  as  follows : 

1.— That  all  our  charitable  institutions  should  endeavor, 
through  the  means  of  friendly  visiting,  the  pulpit,  the  press,  and 
at  public  meetings,  to  elevate  the  general  tone  of  our  poorer  co- 
religionists and  to  impress  upon  them  the  honorable  duty  of 
providing  for  their  families  under  all  circumstances. 

2. — In  connection  with  this  work,  it  would  be  well  if  our  insti- 
tutions for  out-door  relief  could  pursue  a  policy  of  endeavoring 
to  afford  sufficient  assistance  in  proper  cases  to  make  the  appli- 
cant self-supporting,  thus  removing  the  temptation  to  desertion. 

3.— The  several  charities  should  report  to  each  other  monthly 
the  details  of  all  cases  of  desertion  which  come  to  their  knowl- 
edge. This  should  be  supplemented  by  the  endeavor  of  each 
organization  to  ferret  out  the  whereabouts  of  the  offender,  and 
to  take  immediate  legal  steps  toward  his  arrest  and  rendition  to 
his  residence  for  punishment.  The  expense  of  each  such  pro- 
ceeding, it  would  appear  fair,  should  be  borne  by  the  organization 
at  his  residence,  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  actual  expense 
of  the  arrest  and  return  of  the  fugitive  to  the  country  wherein 
he  has  been  indicted  or  charged  with  the  crime  will  be  paid  by 
the  authorities  of  the  State  or  county  of  his  residence. 

4.— This  Conference  and  the  individual  charities  should  urge 
upon  the  Legislature  of  at  least  those  States  in  which  are  situated 
the  larger  centers  of  population,  the  passage  of  a  statute  similar 
to  that  now  existing  in  the  State  of  New  York. 

5. — This  Conference  and  its  several  constituent  organizations 
should  also  endeavor  to  secure  from  the  governors  of  the  various 
States  concerned,  the  rendition  of  every  fugitive  wanted  for  the 
crime  of  desertion  in  any  other  State,  together  with  the  adoption 
of  such  rules  covering  extradition  as  would  include  the  crime 


48  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

of  desertion  unequivocally  among  those  in  which  extradition 
should  be  compulsory. 

As  a  result  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Committee,  the  sub- 
ject of  wife  and  child  abandonment  was  eventually  brought  to 
the  notice  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correc- 
tions, giving  a  decided  impetus  to  the  entire  question  and  bring- 
ing it  prominently  before  Legislatures  and  charitable  societies 
throughout  the  United  States. 

Largely  as  a  result  of  this  agitation,  the  State  of  New  York  has 
recently  changed  its  form  of  punishment  for  desertion  by  declar- 
ing it  to  be  a  felony  instead  of  a  misdemeanor,  as  heretofore.  The 
subject  of  desertion  has  not  come  up  again  before  this  Conference 
since  the  report  made  in  Chicago.  The  question  itself,  however, 
has  unquestionably  been  most  prominently  before  all  the  societies 
connected  with  the  Conference,  and  may  be  classified  as  one  of 
the  most  important  causes  leading  to  the  destitution  brought  to 
the  notice  of  organizations  which  give  relief. 

Various  studies  of  the  desertion  question  have  been  made  in 
recent  years  to  determine  causes  of  desertion  and  to  devise 
methods  of  bringing  the  deserters  to  justice.  At  various  times, 
papers  dealing  with  this  subject  have  been  published  in  the  col- 
umns of  "Jewish  Charity."  In  the  number  for  December,  1905. 
there  appeared  a  paper  by  Mr.  Morris  Waldman,  showing  the 
results  of  such  a  study  made  by  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of 
New  York  in  the  year  1902-1903.  This  study  brought  out  some 
interesting  and  unknown  facts  with  reference  to  the  causes  that 
led  men  to  desert  their  wives  and  families.  Of  particular 
importance  in  this  connection  was  the  statistical  information 
obtained,  showing  that  a  large  percentage  of  desertion  was  not 
due,  as  had  been  supposed,  to  lack  of  work  or  to  inability  to 
earn  a  living,  but  to  various  forms  of  immorality. 

A  similar  study  made  in  the  city  of  Boston  in  1901,  also 
showed  that  desertion  could  hardly  be  ascribed  to  purely  economic 
causes.  Thirty-three  per  cent,  of  the  desertions  in  the  city  of 
Boston  were  due  to  drunkenness  and  a  large  percentage  of  the 
remainder  due  to  general  instability  of  character  on  the  part  of 
the  husband  or  the  wife. 

The  facts  brought  out  in  the  study  made  by  Mr.  Waldman  show 


NATIONAL/    CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  49 

that  Jews,  in  this  respect,  did  not  differ  from  other  human 
beings.  They  demonstrate  equally  with  the  Boston  figures  that 
desertion  is  an  evil,  due  to  lack  of  willingness  on  the  part  of  the 
husband  to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  married  life  and  a  desire 
on  his  part  to  get  away  from  the  cares  and  the  trials  which  mar- 
ried life  entails. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  certain  underlying  facts  connected 
with  Jewish  desertion  which,  to  some  extent,  modify  the  above 
statement.  Of  particular  interest  should  be  mentioned  the  fact 
that  owing  to  a  forced  immigration  from  European  countries,  a 
husband  frequently  comes  to  the  United  States  in  advance  of  his 
family,  contracts  new  ties  when  he  arrives  here  and  is  unwilling, 
for  this  reason,  to  maintain  responsibilities  originally  contracted 
before  he  left  his  native  place.  This  side  of  the  question  has  been 
so  carefully  and  thoroughly  gone  into  that  there  is  very  little 
that  can  be  added.  It  is  well  recognized  to-day  that  desertion 
exists— that  if  anything  it  is  on  the  increase— and  that  the  efforts 
of  societies  should  be  directed  rather  to  the  consideration  of 
breaking  up  desertion,  even  if  stringent  and  severe  methods  must 
be  resorted  to,  than  to  any  academic  or  theoretical  discussion  as 
to  the  causes  of  desertion. 

The  desertion  law  in  the  State  of  New  York,  which  went  into 
effect  on  September  1,  1905,  places  abandonment  of  children  on 
an  entirely  different  plane  from  heretofore.  Under  the  former 
law,  desertion  was  a  misdemeanor,  punishable  by  fine  and  by  im- 
prisonment for  a  term  not  exceeding  six  months.  Under  this 
law,  it  was  practically  impossible  to  prosecute  an  offender  who 
had  left  the  jurisdiction  of  the  commonwealth,  for  the  reaso» 
that  the  governor  of  the  State  was  not  inclined  to  issue  extradi- 
tion papers  for  a  misdemeanor.  The  charitable  societies  of  the 
city  and  State,  realizing  the  shortcomings  of  existing  legislation, 
appointed  a  committee  to  draft  a  new  law,  declaring  desertion  to 
be  a  felony,  which,  after  considerable  pressure  being  brought  to 
bear  on  the  Legislature  by  the  charitable  activities  of  the  State, 
eventually  became  a  law. 

After  most  careful  consideration,  it  was  deemed  inadvisable  to 
make  the  law  apply  to  wife  desertion,  since  it  was  felt  that  no 
Legislature  would  be  willing  to  punish  a  man  very  severely  for 


50  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

desertion  of  wife  alone.  In  fact,  it  was  felt  that  juries,  before 
whom  such  cases  might  be  brought,  would  be  apt  to  exercise  con- 
siderable leniency  where  it  was  discovered  that  no  hardship  was 
involved  through  the  desertion  of  the  wife,  particularly  in  eases 
where  there  were  no  children.  The  New  York  law.  for  this  rea- 
son, is  novel  in  that  wife  desertion  is  not  mentioned.  The  law  as 
it  reads  has  reference  only  to  the  abandonment  of  children.  The 
law  reads  as  follows : 

CHAPTER  168. 

An  Act  to  amend  the  penal  code  in  relation  to  the  abandonment 
of  children. 

Became  a  law  April  8th,  1905,  with  the  approval  of  the  gover- 
nor. Passed,  three-fifths  being  present. 

The  people  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate 
and  Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows : 

SECTION  1.  Chapter  three  of  title  ten  of  the  penal  code  is  here- 
by amended  by  adding  at  the  end  thereof  a  new  section,  to  be  sec- 
tion two  hundred  and  eighty  seven,  a. 

287  A.  ABANDONMENT  OF  CHILDREN.  A  parent  or  other  per- 
son charged  with  the  care  or  custody  for  nurture  or  education  of 
a  child  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  who  abandons  the  child 
in  destitute  circumstances  and  willfully  omits  to  furnish  neces- 
sary and  proper  food,  clothing  or  shelter  for  such  a  child  is 
guilty  of  felony,  punishable  by  imprisonment  for  not  more  than 
two  years  or  by  a  fine  not  to  exceed  one  thousand  dollars,  or  by 
both.  In  case  a  fine  is  imposed,  the  same  may  be  applied  in  the 
discretion  of  the  court  to  the  support  of  such  child.  Proof  of 
the  abandonment  of  such  child  in  destitute  circumstances  and 
omission  to  furnish  necessary  and  proper,  food,  clothing  or  shelter 
is  prima  facie  evidence  that  such  omission  is  willful.  The  provis- 
ions of  section  seven  hundred  and  fifteen  of  this  code  prohibiting 
the  disclosure  of  confidential  communications  between  husband 
and  wife  shall  not  apply  to  prosecutions  for  the  offense  here  de- 
fined. A  previous  conviction  or  convictions  of  felony  or  misde- 
meanor shall  not  prevent  the  court  from  suspending  sentence 
upon  a  conviction  under  this  section,  or  from  arbitrarily  fixing 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  51 

the  limit  of  imprisonment  or  fine,  in  case  imprisonment  or  fine 
is  imposed  upon  conviction  herein. 

2.  Nothing  in  this  act  contained  shall  be  deemed  or  construed 
to  repeal,  amend,  impair  or  in  any  manner  affect  the  provisions 
of  sections   two  hundred  and  eighty-seven,  two  hundred  and 
eighty-eight,  or  two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  of  the  penal  code  or 
any  other  existing  provisions  of  law,  relating  to  abandonment  or 
other  acts  of  cruelty  to  children. 

3.  This  act  shall  take  effect  September  1st,  1905. 
Immediately  after  the  law  went  into  effect,  the  United  Hebrew 

Charities  of  the  city  of  New  York  determined  to  make  a  very 
active  campaign  for  the  prosecution  of  deserters  under  the  new 
law.  In  this  movement,  it  was  aided  by  the  agitation  that  had 
been  carried  on  for  some  time  in  the  columns  of  the  Jewish  Daily 
Neics  of  New  York,  which  paper  had  been  making  an  active  cam- 
paign through  its  columns  towards  finding  deserting  husbands. 
So  that  the  work  could  be  made  as  general  as  possible,  a  Special 
Committee  was  organized,  known  as  the  Committee  for  the  Pro- 
tection of  Deserted  Wives  and  Children,  under  whose  auspices 
the  results  that  are  hereafter  mentioned  have  been  accomplished. 
The  active  propaganda  of  the  work  and  the  funds  necessary  for 
its  maintenance  have  been  supplied  by  the  United  Hebrew  Chari- 
ties. At  the  outset  the  committee  decided  on  certain  funda- 
mental principles  to  guide  its  work.  It  was  felt  that  the  main 
object  of  the  committee  was  not  so  much  to  punish  deserters  as 
to  reunite  them  with  their  families  and  prevent  the  latter  from 
becoming  burdens  on  the  community.  At  the  same  time  it  was 
recognized  that  there  would  be  instances  in  which  no  other  means 
would  be  effective,  and  in  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  apply 
the  law  to  its  full  effect. 

Of  paramount  importance,  however,  was  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  the  best  way  to  overcome  desertion  was  to  give  as  much 
publicity  as  possible  to  the  offender  and  to  compel  him  either 
through  fear  of  punishment  or  through  fear  of  social  ostracism 
to  return  voluntarily  and  assume  the  responsibility  which  he  had 
neglected.  It  was  conceded  at  the  outset  that  only  through  a  sys- 
tematic propaganda  would  the  work  of  the  committee  become 
effective. 


52  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

The  matter  is  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Conference  here 
to  show  what  can  be  accomplished  with  deserters  under  a  plan 
such  as  has  been  outlined  above.  At  the  beginning  it  was  recog- 
nized that  to  do  the  work  effectively,  some  one  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  the  legal  situation  should  be  employed,  who  would 
give  his  entire  time  and  attention  to  the  work.  It  is  only  fitting 
that  some  recognition  should  be  given  to  Mr.  Charles  Zunser,  the 
special  desertion  agent,  who  has  been  employed  by  the  committee, 
for  the  intelligence  and  the  care  with  which  he  has  carried  on 
the  committee's  work.  No  less  praise  should  be  accorded  to  the 
Jewish  press,  and  in  particular  the  Jewish  Daily  News,  for  the 
co-operation  which  it  has  tendered  in  giving  the  work  of  the  com- 
mittee the  proper  publicity.  In  fact,  it  can  safely  be  said  that 
without  the  help  of  the  press,  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  the  means 
of  getting  that  publicity  which  is  so  desirable  not  only  in  finding 
offenders,  but  in  inducing  them  to  return. 

In  detail,  the  work  of  the  committee  has  been  as  follows :  No- 
tice was  given  in  all  papers  to  all  deserted  wives,  advising  them 
to  appear  before  the  committee  and  bring  with  them  all  the  facts 
in  their  possession,  through  which  the  deserting  husbands  might 
possibly  be  traced.  These  facts  included,  in  particular,  photo- 
graphs of  the  husband,  place  of  his  last  occupation,  and  the  name 
of  his  employer.  After  the  wife's  statement  was  taken,  a  special 
investigator  at  once  visited  the  home,  employer,  relatives  and 
friends,  in  order  to  obtain  information  regarding  the  present 
whereabouts  of  the  deserter.  An  active  campaign  was  at  once 
started  in  the  newspapers,  calling  attention  to  the  formation  of 
the  committee,  citing  the  law,  and  making  a  statement  that  it  was 
the  intention  of  the  committee  to  organize  each  community  in  the 
United  States  in  such  a  manner  that  information  of  the  deserter 
was  to  be  spread  broadcast  throughout  the  country  and  the  re- 
spective communities  asked  to  co-operate  in  ascertaining  his 
whereabouts.  The  deserters  were  further  given  to  understand 
that  if  they  returned  and  resumed  their  responsibilities,  there 
was  no  question  of  subsequent  punishment.  If  they  did  not  do 
so,  the  committee  held  itself  ready  to  make  all  necessary  ex- 
penditures in  finding  the  husband,  engaging  the  necessary  legal 
counsel,  prosecuting  him,  and  where  it  was  not  possible  to  prose- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  53 

cute  in  New  York  city,  to  send  the  wife  and  the  family  to  the 
residence  of  the  husband  to  prosecute  him  in  the  city  or  State  in 
which  he  lived.  The  effect  of  this  propaganda  was  immediately 
apparent.  The  matter  was  taken  up  by  the  readers  of  the  Jewish 
press  throughout  the  United  States,  many  of  them  at  once  offer- 
ing assistance  in  organizing  similar  committees  in  other  communi- 
ties. It  was  not  uncommon  for  a  deserter,  whose  whereabouts 
had  been  unknown  for  years,  to  write  to  his  wife,  asking  for  for- 
giveness, and  promising  to  return  if  he  would  be  guaranteed 
against  punishment.  In  all  of  these  instances  the  wife  was  told 
to  advise  the  husband  that  the  committee  would  take  no  action, 
if  he  would  only  support  his  family.  In  other  instances,  the 
whereabouts  of  the  husband  were  discovered  either  through 
friends  or  acquaintances,  who  read  the  description  of  the  men  in 
the  newspapers,  with  the  result  that  correspondence  was  opened 
at  once  with  the  societies  in  the  respective  cities.  If  the  man 
was  located,  the  committee  did  not  hesitate,  if  they  could  not 
prosecute  under  the  New  York  State  law,  to  forward  at  once  the 
wife  and  children  to  the  city  in  which  the  husband  lived,  at  the 
same  time  guaranteeing  the  society  of  the  city  against  any  ex- 
pense that  might  be  involved  either  in  the  support  of  the  family 
while  in  the  city  or  in  making  the  necessary  prosecutions.  This 
action  was  necessary  in  many  instances,  for  the  reason  that  the 
New  York  law  was  not  retroactive  and  desertions  taking  place 
before  September  1st,  1905,  are  still  considered  misdemeanors 
and  cannot  be  classified  as  felonies. 

The  results  of  the  work  that  has  been  done  by  the  committee 
since  October  15th  are  best  told  in  the  accompanying  statement : 


54  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

REPORT   OP  THE  DESERTION   AGENT. 

For  the  period  beginning  October  15,  1905,  and  ending  May  1, 
1906. 

PLACE   OF   DESERTION. 

In  New  York  State  before  Sept.  1,  1905 292 

In  New  York  State  after  Sept.  1,  1905 195 

In  other  States  of  the  Union 36 

In  foreign  countries 57 

Desertion  story  found  to  be  fictitious 11 

591 

TERMINATION  OF  CASES.  — TABLE  1. 

Number  of  eases  settled  in  court 54 

Of  these,  husbands  now  supporting  families 33 

Of  these,  husbands  serving  a  term  in  prison 18 

Of  these,  husbands  released  from  prison  at  wife's 

request 2 

Of  these,  husband  arrested  but  could  not  be  made 

to  support  his  family,  as  he  is  without  means ....  1 

TABLE  2. 

Number  of  cases  settled  outside  of  court  and  hus- 
bands now  supporting  families 63 

Of  these,  husband  wrote  wife,  mentioned  Deser- 
tion Committee,  and  returned 2 

Of  these,  husband  requested  wife  to  come  to  him ...       6 

Of  these,  families  sent  to  husband  and  reunions 
effected  6 

Of  these,  wife  was  deserted  in  another  city,  man 
came  to  New  York,  effected  a  reunion  and  took 
family  with  him 2 

Of  these,  supporting  families  as  direct  result  of 
committee's  work  .  47 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  55 

TABLE   3. 

Number  of  cases  pending  in  court 48 

Of  these,  warrants  issued  for 31 

Of  these,  action  for  divorce  was  begun  by  woman. . .  5 
Of  these,  pending  in  court  outside  of  New  York 

State  3 

Of  these,  in  hands  of  Corporation  Counsel 1 

Of  these,  awaiting  trial,  man  released  on  bail 2 

Of  these,  indictment  found 3 

Of  these,  in  hands  of  attorneys 3 

Of  these,  extradition  proceedings  pending 1 

TABLE   4.— MISCELLANEOUS. 

Of  these,  numbers  of  cases  in  which  the  families  were 

sent  to  prosecute  or  join  husband,  cases  pending.  23 

Of  these,  number  of  cases  in  which  negotiations 
for  settlement  are  pending  42 

Wife  refuses  to  prosecute  as  she  received  a  "get" 
from  husband 3 

Desertion  story  fictitious  11 

Awaiting  further  information  and  development.  .   349 

426 

The  results  that  have  been  thus  far  accomplished  demonstrate 
one  thing,  namely,  that  if  the  system  which  has  been  followed  in 
New  York  could  be  extended  throughout  the  United  States,  it 
would  be  possible  to  discover  many  of  the  deserters,  whose  cases 
were  quoted  above  as  still  pending  investigation,  and  that  the 
percentage  of  desertion  occurring  could  be  materially  reduced. 

The  number  of  bank  robberks  that  occur  to-day  in  the  United 
States  is  apparently  limited.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is 
due  to  the  knowledge  on  the  part  of  most  individuals  that  crime 
of  this  kind  is  not  forgotten  and  that  the  criminal,  even  if  he  be 
a  fugitive  from  justice,  is  followed  up  to  any  part  of  the  United 
States  or  even  to  any  part  of  the  earth  persistently  and  relent- 
lessly by  the  officers  of  the  government  or  of  the  detective  bureau 
to  whom  the  search  for  the  criminal  has  been  entrusted.  It 


56  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

seems  to  be  almost  axiomatic  that  bank  forgers  and  bank  robbers 
eventually  are  located  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  fear  of 
final  detection,  notwithstanding  the  best  laid  plans  for  escape, 
acts  as  a  strong  deterrent  against  this  special  form  of  theft. 

The  same  principle  must  be  applied  to  our  deserters.  Deser- 
tion has  become  more  frequent  and  more  pronounced  for  the 
simple  reason  that  it  is  possible  for  an  offender  to  leave  his  fam- 
ily, go  to  another  State,  possibly  to  change  his  name  and  to  live 
the  rest  of  his  life  without  any  danger  of  being  apprehended.  It 
is  only  when  charitable  societies  will  work  in  unison  and  harmony, 
so  that  the  description  of  every  deserter  can  be  sent  to  every  other 
community  to  which  he  may  possibly  have  gone,  and  that  in  each 
of  these  communities  there  shall  be  an  active  committee  or 
agent,  whose  business  it  will  be  to  find  his  whereabouts,  that  the 
fear  of  almost  immediate  capture  will,  to  a  large  extent,  deter- 
mine the  prospective  deserter  to  remain  at  home  and  keep  up  his 
responsibilities,  rather  than  to  suffer  the  consequences  if  he  is 
apprehended  and  prosecuted.  Probably  no  other  class  of  people 
is  so  fortunately  circumstanced  as  are  we.  It  is  peculiar  that 
the  Jewish  press  circulates  widely  throughout  the  United  States 
and  reaches  a  class  of  readers  who  would  be  most  apt  to  come  in 
contact  with  deserters,  and  what  is  of  equal  importance,  will  be 
read  by  the  deserter  himself.  If  the  prospective  deserter  knew 
that  almost  immediately  after  his  departure  from  home,  the  relief 
organizations,  or  rather  his  wife,  through  the  relief  organization, 
were  to  publish  through  the  papers,  a  full  description  of  his 
appearance  and  of  his  photograph,  if  obtainable,  and  that  there 
was  every  likelihood  that  his  wife  and  family  would  be  sent  on 
to  him  or  that  extradition  papers  would  immediately  be  issued 
for  his  apprehension,  and  if  he  realized  that  he  would  be  apt  to 
be  immediately  recognized  in  the  other  communities  to  which  he 
intended  to  go,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  percentage  of  de- 
sertion would  be  very  materially  reduced. 

It  is  the  hope  of  the  writer  that  the  presentation  of  these  facts 
to  the  Conference  and  to  the  individual  societies  comprising  the 
Conference  will  effect  some  joint  action  leading  to  the  formation 
of  a  National  Jewish  Registration  Bureau  for  Deserters.  Such 
a  bureau  should,  following  out  the  recommendations  made  by  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  57 

Committee  on  Desertion  in  1900,  be  able  to  forward  at  once  to  the 
various  societies  throughout  the  United  States,  a  description  of 
the  deserter  and  a  complete  statement  regarding  his  habits,  char- 
acter of  employment  in  which  he  might  be  likely  to  engage,  cause 
of  his  desertion,  and  the  other  prominent  facts  connected  with  the 
abandonment  of  his  family.  Such  a  bureau  should  furthermore 
distribute  this  information  not  only  to  the  relief  societies  of  the 
respective  cities  and  towns,  but  should  print  leaflets  describing 
the  deserters,  which  might  be  distributed  by  the  individual  so- 
ciety among  the  people  with  whom  the  deserter  would  be  apt 
either  to  take  refuge  or  among  whom  he  would  be  apt  to  live 
and  seek  employment.  Such  a  permanent  record,  read  by  the 
many  individuals,  would  have  astonishing  results.  As  stated 
above,  the  value  of  the  press  in  giving  proper  publicity  cannot 
be  overestimated  and  the  co-operation  of  the  press  is  always  to 
be  relied  upon. 

DISCUSSION. 

MR.  MICHEL  HEYMAN,  New  Orleans :  Why  is  the  law  of  New 
York  only  for  child  desertion ;  why  not  for  wife  desertion  ? 

THE  PRESIDENT  :  I  think  you  will  find  that  there  is  difficulty 
in  getting  a  jury  to  convict  a  man  who  leaves  his  wife  and  it  is 
proven  that  she  is  not  destitute,  of  a  felony  which  is  apt  to  mean 
a  penitentiary  offence.  They  won't  send  a  man  to  the  peniten- 
tiary; at  least  it  is  difficult  to  secure  conviction  in  that  kind  of 
case.  That  is  the  reason  Dr.  Frankel  assigned  as  covering  the 
difference  and  which  secured  the  enactment  of  that  law. 

MR.  HEYMAN  :  In  New  Orleans  'we  have  only  about  10,000 
Jews,  a  great  many  Russian  immigrants,  but  to  my  knowledge 
there  is  only  one  case  of  wife  desertion  in  New  Orleans.  There 
might  be  some  others,  but  they  didn't  come  before  us. 

Miss  MIRIAM  KALISKY,  Chicago :  We  have  had  over  two  hun- 
dred cases  of  wife  desertion  last  year  in  Chicago.  I  understand 
from  Dr.  Frankel's  paper  that  since  the  first  of  September,  1905. 
wife  desertion  is  extraditable.  We  have  located  a  great  many 
deserters  from  New  York  in  our  city.  I  have  them  come  to  oir; 
office,  and  keep  in  touch  with  them  weeks  and  weeks.  I  wouH 
like  to  ask  the  question:  How  many  have  been  extradited? 


58  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

MR.  ZUNSER:  I  don't  remember  the  number  extradited  from 
Chicago,  but  I  know  we  have  brought  back  a  few.  We  find  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  inducing  the  women,  after  counsel  had  gone 
to  the  trouble  and  expense  of  bringing  these  men  back,  to  con- 
tinue the  prosecution.  We  find  the  woman  turns  right  about 
when  she  hears  the  man  is  going  to  get  a  few  years  imprison- 
ment, and  asks  the  judge  to  let  her  husband  out.  In  this  respect 
we  have  been  rather  unsuccessful. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  I  want  to  correct  a  misstatement  of  Miss 
Kalisky.  The  offence  did  not  become  extraditable  previous 
to  last  October.  As  I  stated  last  night,  it  is  now  generally 
recognized  that  misdemeanors  are  always  extraditable  as  well 
as  felonies  as  a  matter  of  law.  As  a  matter  of  actual  practice, 
Governors  in  some  States  are  extremely  loath  to  grant  extradi- 
tion papers  for  what  is  considered  a  minor  offence  where  they 
would  grant  it  for  what  is  considered  a  serious  offence,  the  dis- 
tinction between  minor  and  serious  offence  being  based  upon 
whether  it  is  a  misdemeanor,  punishable  by  sending  a  man  to  jail 
or  to  the  house  of  correction,  or  felony,  punishable  by  imprison- 
ment or  fine.  In  this  State  and  other  states  where  it  is  deemed 
necessary  for  a  misdemeanor,  extradition  papers  have  been 
granted.  The  matter  has  been  taken  up  very  fully  by  the  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction  and  the  New  York 
Charity  Organization  Society  has  published  a  most  excellent 
pamphlet  consisting  of  a  study  by  Miss  Brandt  of  some  450  odd 
cases  of  desertion,  and  a  pamphlet  by  Mr.  Baldwin,  of  Washing- 
ton, collating  all  the  desertion  laws  of  the  country  and  enforcing 
in  a  most  excellent  manner  the  doctrine  that  misdemeanors  are 
extraditable.  The  trouble  has  been,  as  the  last  speaker  just  pointed 
out,  that  the  wives  naturally  forgive.  It  is  the  easiest  thing, 
and  in  the  individual  case  doubtless  the  best  thing.  The  District 
Attorneys  naturally  don't  want  to  go  to  the  trouble  and  don't 
want  to  put  the  State  to  the  great  expense  of  extradition  whe'i 
the  result  of  the  extradition  will  be  that  nothing  is  accomplished 
through  the  courts.  That  is  the  great  hindrance  to  extradition 
proceedings  that  accounts  for  the  most  of  the  difficulty.  Then 
in  some  states,  as  in  Illinois,  we  have  no  public  funds.  We  have 
to  rely  on  private  funds,  and  for  the  same  reason  it  is  hard  to 


NATIONAL,    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  59 

get  private  funds.     Our  charity  funds  are,  of  course,  limited. 

MR.  SIMON  WOLF,  Washington:  It  seems  to  me  one  of  the 
first  things  to  be  taken  up  is  to  see  that  every  State  in  the  Union 
shall  pass  a  law  on  the  subject,  the  laws  to  be  of  uniform 
character.  Last  year  I  succeeded  in  inducing  Congress  to  pass 
a  law  on  the  subject,  which  only  affects  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  while  we  have  had  but  very  few  cases  of  desertion,  yet  we 
have  had  about  eleven  inside  of  twelve  months. 

The  origin  of  desertion,  to  a  very  large  extent,  is  in  the  place 
of  birth,  where,  unfortunately,  as  in  Russia  and  Oriental  coun- 
tries, they  marry  very,  very  young,  and  naturally,  under  the 
exodus  that  has  been  going  on  for  some  years  owing  to  oppres- 
sion, the  husband  coming  first,  leaving  his  wife  and  children  over 
there,  some  of  the  women  have  aged  and  he  comes  here  under 
new  conditions  and  he  goes  astray.  If  something  would  be  done 
to  bring  the  families  together  when  they  emigrate,  and  not  per- 
mit the  one  or  the  other  to  come  separately,  a  great  many  depor- 
tations might  be  prevented,  because  the  law  is  more  lenient  whera 
the  father  and  mother  and  children  come  together,  than  where 
the  husband  comes  alone  and  the  wife  and  children  later.  In 
that  way  great  good  might  be  accomplished — to  try  and  see  that 
families  should  come  together  and  not  separately,  and  to  educate 
public  sentiment  to  the  point  of  having  uniform  legislation 
throughout  the  United  States,  and  in  that  way  a  bureau,  when 
formed,  would  of  course,  be  of  great  assistance  and  of  great  help. 

Miss  GERTRUDE  BERG,  Philadelphia :  The  paper  presents  as  the 
reason  for  not  extraditing  the  deserting  man  that  the  wife  will 
not  appear  against  him.  Is  there  any  other  means  of  having  him 
arrested  and  an  organization  appearing  against  the  man,  and 
if  he  does  not  go  back,  have  him  committed  and  making 
him  thereby  an  example  in  the  community?  Is  there  no  such 
law? 

THE  PRESIDENT:  It  is  not  a  question  of  arrest  at  all.  It  is 
a  question  after  the  man  is  arrested  and  brought  back  to  conduct 
the  prosecution.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  conduct  the 
prosecution  if  the  main  prosecutor  is  not  willing  to  come  for- 
ward and  give  testimony.  The  wife  cannot  be  compelled  to  tes- 


60  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

tify  against  the  husband,  and  most  of  the  facts  essential  to  pros- 
ecution cannot  be  proven  unless  she  is  willing  to  testify. 

MR.  MAX  HERZBERG,  Philadelphia:  The  law  of  Penn- 
sylvania heretofore  was  that  it  never  recognized  wife  de- 
sertion or  family  desertion  as  crime  or  misdemeanor.  It 
was  gotten  around  in  a  different  way.  The  Board  of 
Guardians  of  the  Poor,  at  the  instigation  of  the  deserted 
wife,  would  have  a  man  arrested,  and  he  would  then  be  brought 
into  court  and  the  judge  presiding  would  make  an  order 
against  him  for  the  support  of  the  wife  and  children.  That, 
however,  could  only  be  done  at  the  instigation  of  the  wife  and 
upon  her  testimony.  If  he  refused  to  pay  that  order  after  it 
was  made  he  could  be  sent  to  jail,  not  because  he  had  committed 
a  crime,  but  because  he  was  in  contempt  of  court ;  in  other  words 
that  he  had  not  obeyed  the  order  of  the  judge  and  was  therefore 
supposed  to  be  in  contempt  of  court.  Of  course,  a  proceeding  of 
that  kind  was  not  such  a  one  as  the  law  recognized  as  extradita- 
ble, and  we  felt  that  some  proceeding  would  have  to  be  taken 
whereby  the  societies  and  others  interested  in  seeing  that  deseri- 
ing  husbands  were  prosecuted  and  punished  would  have  a  right 
to  appear.  The  difficulty  we  found,  as  all  of  you  find  in  every 
one  of  the  states,  was  that  after  we  had  gone  to  considerable  ex- 
pense and  trouble  in  locating  a  man  in  the  town  where  he  was 
found,  and  had  him  arrested,  threatening  of  course  not  to  sup- 
port the  wife  until  she  did  take  steps  to  prosecute  the  man,  after 
he  was  arrested  she  refused  to  prosecute,  and  all  the  trouble  and 
expense  was  of  no  avail.  In  order  to  get  around  that,  we  had  a 
law  passed  not  only  by  which  the  deserted  wife  prosecuted  or 
testified,  but  also  making  it  a  misdemeanor.  The  Committee,  of 
which  I  was  a  member,  really  wanted  to  make  it  a  felony,  but 
the  Legislature  thought  felony  was  a  pretty  harsh  term  and 
made  it  a  misdemeanor,  and  the  Governors  at  first  were  rather 
loath  to  grant  extradition  papers.  I  may  say  that  we  have  had 
two  instances  under  the  notice  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities 
Society,  in  which  we  brought  the  offenders  from  other  States. 
The  first  under  the  law  was  one  I  myself  instituted.  I  swore 
out  the  warrant  myself  for  the  man,  and  sent  the  warrant,  to- 
gether with  the  papers,  up  to  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  with 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  61 

a  letter,  and  he  immediately  returned  it  honored.  I  sent  it  to 
Governor  Higgins  of  New  York  and  he  returned  it  by  next  mail. 
I  think  within  one  week  (the  record  time  in  Pennsylvania  for 
extradition)  we  had  the  man  back  in  Philadelphia.  I'm  sorry 
to  say  it  didn't  do  much  good.  Inside  of  a  month  the  woman, 
without  my  knowledge,  went  to  court  one  morning  and  said  she 
had  her  husband  arrested  and  wanted  to  drop  the  prosecution, 
and  the  District  Attorney  merely  submitted  the  bill  and  allowed 
the  man  to  go,  with  the  usual  result ;  he  stayed  home  three  weeks, 
is  again  a  fugitive  from  justice,  has  two  children  in  the  alms- 
house,  and  the  other  two  in  different  places. 

THE  PRESIDENT  :  It  may  be  possible  to  convict  even  where  the 
wife  refuses  to  prosecute  and  forgives,  but  it  will  be  a  very  rare 
jury  that  will  ever  convict  under  those  circumstances.  What- 
ever, the  law  may  be,  it  does  not  make  the  wife  an  absolutely  es- 
sential witness.  A  man  may  be  prosecuted  for  any  offence  he 
commits,  without  regard  to  the  person  who  happens  to  be  in- 
jured by  the  offence  to  prosecute.  If  the  party  injured,  particu- 
larly in  the  matter  of  desertion,  refuses  to  prosecute,  and  tells 
the  jury  she  does  not  want  the  man  punished,  no  jury  of  twelve 
men  is  going  to  be  unanimous  in  sending  the  man  to  the  peniten- 
tiary or  to  jail,  in  my  judgment. 

DR.  MAX  LANDSBERG,  Rochester:  It  seems  to  me  that  even  if 
we  have  uniform  laws  in  the  United  States,  the  possibility 
of  extraditing  the  husband  would  not  do  away  with  the  evil. 
The  women  always  consent  to  live  again  with  the  men. 
Now  I  think  every  case,  before  action' is  taken,  should  be  studied. 
There  are  actually  a  good  many  instances  where  it  is  a  blessing 
if  the  husband  is  away  from  the  wife.  We  have  cases  where 
desertion  is  a  chronic  matter;  we  have  other  cases  where  the 
women  know  where  the  husbands  are  and  only  want  to  be  sup- 
ported for  a  while;  we  have  cases  where  there  are  no  children, 
and  where  the  husband  will  leave  as  soon  as  a  child  is  expected  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  the  expense  of  supporting  his  wife  during 
that  period.  Now  I  do  not  know  whether  that  is  covered  by  our 
desertion  law  in  the  State  of  New  York,  because  it  refers  only  to 
child  desertion.  I  do  not  know  if  the  law  refers  to  the  desertion 


62 

of  an  unborn  child.  We  had  a  case  long  before  our  law  was 
passed — years  ago — where  a  man  had  left,  and  we  found  it  out. 
His  wife  could  not  read  and  our  agent  read  the  letter  that  came 
from  Russia  where  the  parents  had  lived.  The  man  had  two 
children  and  his  wife.  They  tried  to  get  him  to  come  back  to 
Russia  because  they  had  another  wife  for  him  who  had  a  lot  of 
money.  "We  engaged  detectives.  We  were  very  much  inter- 
ested in  bringing  the  man  to  justice.  We  sent  detectives  with 
our  agent  in  order  to  arrest  the  man,  and  also  the  rabbi,  if  pos- 
sible, the  moment  the  ghet  was  delivered.  They  had  made  ar- 
rangements so  that  the  ghet  would  be  valid  in  the  absence  of 
the  wife  and  they  would  appoint  an  agent  for  the  wife,  which  is 
generally  not  done  among  the  Jews,  but  they  did  so.  Our  agent 
had  the  man  arrested  before  the  ghet  was  delivered.  The  man 
was  taken  back  to  Russia  and  put  under  bonds  to  support  his 
wife,  and  since  he  could  not  pay,  he  was  put  in  the  penitentiary 
for  years,  and  of  course  then  they  had  to  let  him  out.  The  man 
was  very  penitent.  He  said  he  was  wrong  and  he  wanted  to  live 
with  his  wife.  We  set  him  up  in  business  and  the  whole  result 
was,  after  a  few  weeks  he  deserted  her  again  and  went  to  Wash- 
ington ;  so  that  instead  of  a  wife  and  two  children,  we  have  had  a 
wife  and  three  children  to  support  for  the  last  six  or  seven  years. 
The  only  remedy  is  that  we  investigate  into  the  history  of  the 
man.  If  we  find  him  a  chronic  deserter  we  let  him  go,  but  if  he 
is  a  man  that  does  it  the  first  time  and  has  never  done  it  before, 
and  you  can  induce  the  wife  in  advance  to  pledge  herself  to 
prosecute  him,  then  have  him  arrested;  otherwise  don't  go  to  the 
expense. 

MRS.  PISKO,  Denver:  It  seems  to  me  that  one  side  of  the 
question  has  not  been  touched  upon  at  all,  and  it  seems  to  me 
that  that  side  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  lack  of  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  State  and  on  the  part  of  the  woman  to  have  the 
man  prosecuted.  Supposing  that  we  had  to  bring  a  worthless 
fellow  back  from  another  State  and  put  him  in  jail  or  the  peni- 
tentiary for  a  year  or  two  years;  the  woman  is  separated,  and 
has  to  be  supported  by  the  charities.  Now  I  have  nothing  new 
or  original  to  offer,  but  I  think  this  is  something  that  the  people 
who  are  thinking  of  having  legislation  in  their  States  on  this  sub- 


NATIONAL,    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  63 

ject  ought  to  consider.  If  they  would  take  the  man  and  put  him 
into  prison  and  make  him  work,  and  give  the  money  which  he 
earns  in  prison,  to  support  his  family,  I  think  the  States  would 
be  much  more  willing  to  bring  the  man  back,  and  the  wives 
would  be  much  more  willing  to  prosecute  if  they  knew  the  men 
would  support  them.  In  the  meantime,  the  woman  always  hopes 
he  is  going  to  support  her.  The  State  doesn't  want  to  bring  the 
man  back.  He  is  only  a  burden  on  the  State.  In  making  legis- 
lation, I  think  that  is  one  of  the  things  that  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

MR.  SOLOMON  LOWENSTEIN,  New  York:  Inasmuch  as  there 
were  certain  recommendations  containedlnthe  President's  biennial 
reportread  last  evening,  and  certain  recommendations  in  the  paper 
of  Dr.  Frankel,  I  move  that  a  committee  of  three  on  Resolutions 
be  appointed  to  consider  resolutions  on  these  subjects  and  such 
other  subjects  as  may  come  before  the  Conference. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  A  motion  is  made  to  appoint  a  committee 
of  three  to  consider  and  report  on  all  resolutions  that  may  be  of- 
fered during  this  Conference  or  that  have  heretofore  been  sug- 
gested in  this  Conference  or  in  Dr.  Frankel's  paper. 

(Motion  put  and  unanimously  carried.) 

The  chair  appoints  Messrs.  Senior,  Landsberg  and  Mrs.  Eck- 
house  as  the  Committee  on  Resolutions. 

PERSISTENCY   OF   DEPENDENCE   AS   INDICATED  BY 
RELIEF  STATISTICS. 

DR.  BORIS  D.  BOGEN,  Superintendent  of  the  United  Jewish 
Charities,  Cincinnati,  O. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  is  a  prevailing  opinion  that  the 
poor  persist  in  living  in  poverty  and  that  their  station  in  life  has 
become  a  second  nature  to  them.  Instead  of  studying  the  true 
conditions  and  the  real  underlying  reasons  of  poverty,  our  atten- 
tion is  too  often  directed  towards  the  necessity  of  improving  or 
changing  the  tendencies  of  the  poor,  ignoring  the  fact  that  after 
all,  poverty  is  not  the  choice  of  those  afflicted  by  it,  but  is  rather 


64  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

a  result  of  the  struggle  for  existence  in  which  some  have  suc- 
ceeded in  making  themselves  independent  by  making  others 
dependent.  The  individual  is  a  very  insignificant  item  in  com- 
parison with  the  many  influences  that  are  pouring  in  from 
every  side,  to  make  life  what  it  is. 

The  charity  worker  cannot  help  being  perplexed  by  the  tre- 
mendous forces  working  against  the  poor,  keeping  them  down  all 
the  time,  and  counteracting  the  different  efforts  made  for  the 
amelioration  of  their  conditions.  But  the  most  discouraging 
feature  of  charity  work  is  the  fear  that  not  only  the  endeavors 
to  help  the  poor  are  in  vain,  but  that  in  some  instances  these  are 
liable  to  produce  negative  results  and  in  some  measure  are  ac- 
countable for  the  growth  of  misery  and  dependence.  This  fear  is 
confirmed  by  experiences  in  the  past. 

"The  Allowance  System"  threatened  to  pauperize  England's 
laboring  classes.  Pauperism  increased  enormously,  the  material 
conditions  of  the  poor  were  not  better,  most  of  all  were  the  poor 
affected  morally.  The  fearful  results  of  careless  out-door  relief 
have  been  most  impressively  demonstrated  in  the  extensive  and 
instructive  report  of  Prof.  J.  J.  MeCook,  of  Hartford,  Conn., 
Chairman  of  a  committee  appointed  by  that  town  in  1890,  upon 
"Out-Door  Alms."  He  shows  that  Hartford  in  twenty  years 
had  gained  41.1  per  cent,  in  population,  51.8  per  cent,  in  paupers 
and  277.9  per  cent,  in  cost  of  relief  per  capita. 

And  still  the  methods  used  in  ascertaining  the  actual  cause  of 
pauperism,  and  especially  the  manner  in  which  conclusions  have 
been  drawn,  attributing  pauperism  to  indiscriminate  relief,  have 
not  been  adequate. 

Coincidence  of  growth  of  pauperism  and  the  existence  of  cer- 
tain forms  of  relief  is  not  a  positive  proof  of  the  former  being 
the  cause  of  the  latter— there  are  so  many  other  factors  to  be 
taken  into  consideration.  "Pauperism  and  the  resulting  evils 
arising  from  the  giving  of  material  relief  have  been  largely  ex- 
aggerated. ' '  said  Dr.  Lee  K.  Frankel,  in  his  paper  on  ' '  The  Care 
of  Families  in  their  Homes,"  at  the  Detroit  Conference.  "I 
venture  to  say,"  he  continued,  "that  such  pauperism  as  may  be 
traced  to  this  cause  is  not  even  due  to  its  indiscriminate  use." 
The  only  safe  method,  as  it  seems  to  us,  to  prove  the  true  condi- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  65 

tion,  is  to  study  the  actual  experience  of  our  different  relief 
agencies,  as  indicated  by  the  modern  record  system  introduced 
at  present  in  many  organizations.  It  is  only  lately  that  we  began 
to  realize  the  true  significance  of  scientific  methods  in  the  sphere 
of  philanthropy,  but  the  keeping  of  strict  records  and  the  neces- 
sity of  proper  and  thorough  investigation  has  been  argued  only 
from  the  standpoint  of  protection  of  charitable  institutions  from 
imposition  of  unworthy  applicants.  It  has  been  used  for  the 
better  exposition  of  the  scope  and  the  efficiency  of  the  given 
agency,  but  it  is  seldom  looked  upon  as  a  valuable  material  for 
scientific  investigation.  This  position  explains  the  reason  of  the 
lack  of  uniformity  of  record  systems  in  the  different  cities,  and 
the  difficulty  in  getting  a  reasonable  amount  of  data  of  a  certain 
kind  from  the  mass  of  chaotic,  unsystematized  conglomeration  of 
disconnected  facts  and  figures. 

Our  task  to-day  is  limited  to  the  discussion  of  pauperism 
among  the  Jewish  poor.  Evidently,  for  our  purpose,  pauperism 
will  have  to  be  considered  in  its  limited  specific  meaning,  namely : 
pauperism  is  a  subjective  condition  in  which  a  person  prefers 
and  persists  in  living  on  charity,  loses  his  respect  for  self-depend- 
ence and  has  no  ambition  to  obtain,  through  his  own  efforts,  a 
more  comfortable  life.  It  is  a  psychological  condition,  not  neces- 
sarily, however,  combined  with  poverty,  for  many  a  pauper  may 
accumulate  a  fortune  and  lead  a  double  life. 

The  most  characteristic  type  of  Jewish  pauperism  is  the 
Schnorrer,  who  seemed  to  fill  an  existing  demand  and  was  con- 
scious of  his  dignified  calling.  These  parasites  of  society  are 
naturally  repulsive  to  the  normal  human  mind,  and  it  is  no 
wonder  that  the  enmity  towards  this  class  has  grown  into  a  sus- 
picion against  any  one  who  applies  for  charity.  The  professional 
charity-worker  is  especially  careful  and  often  produces  the  im- 
pression of  a  guardian  against  pauperism  rather  than  the  agent 
for  and  protector  of  the  poor.  » 

In  order  to  discuss  the  subject  of  persistency  of  dependence  as 
indicated  by  relief  statistics,  a  subject,  by  the  way,  suggested 
by  the  Conference  Committee,  and  assigned  to  me  almost  against 
my  wish,  I  have  prepared  a  set  of  questions  which  were  sent  to 
different  organizations.  These  questions  were  intended,  mainly, 


66 

to  indicate  persistency  of  dependence  as  expressed  in  the  number 
and  character  of  applications  for  relief  for  the  last  five  years. 
Special  attention  was  given  to  1900  as  a  year  of  comparative  pros- 
perity, and  1903  as  a  year  of  somewhat  unfavorable  industrial 
conditions. 

Of  the  fifty  organizations  to  which  these  inquiries  were  ad- 
dressed only  fifteen  responded.     Six  expressed  regret  that  they 
could  not  be  of  assistance,  as  no  records  have  been  kept;  four 
gave  answers  to  but  a  few  questions,  and  only  the  following  five 
gave  satisfactory  and  more  or  less  valuable  material : 
The  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York. 
The  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  Philadelphia. 
The  United  Jewish  Charities  of  Cleveland. 
The  United  Jewish  Charities  of  Detroit. 
The  United  Jewish'  Charities  of  Cincinnati. 
In  addition  to  these,  the  statistical  data  as  found  in  the  An- 
nual  Reports   of   the    different    organizations   have    also   been 
utilized  for  the  purpose. 

The  study  of  the  material  thus  obtained  leads  to  interest- 
ing conclusions  as  to  the  question  of  persistency  of  dependence 
among  the  Jewish  poor. 

It  shows,  first  of  all,  that  the  number  of  those  who  applied  for 
charity  in  1903  the  first  time,  reappear  on  the  list  in  1905  only 
in  a  very  small  proportion,  and  still  more  strikingly  so,  if  we  take 
for  comparison  the  applicants  who  applied  first  in  1900.  The 
statistical  data  can  be  summarized  as  follows:  The  number  of 
applications  first  made  in  1903,  which  reappear  on  the  list  in 
1905— in  Philadelphia  7.7  per  cent;  in  New  York,  8.7  per  cent; 
in  Cincinnati,  23  per  cent ;  in  Detroit,  20  per  cent.  The  number 
of  applications  first  made  in  1900  which  reappear  on  the  list  in 
1905— Philadelphia,  5.8  per  cent. ;  New  York,  7.7  per  cent. ;  Cin- 
cinnati, 11  per  cent. 

It  is  remarkable  also  that  the  number  of  new  applications, 
notwithstanding  the  constant  immigration,  differs  but  slightly 
from  year  to  year : 

In  New  York  in  1900  we  find  5,466  new  applications. 
In  New  York  in  1903  we  find  6,260  new  applications. 
In  New  York  in  1905  we  find  5,530  new  applications. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  67 

In  Philadelphia  in  1900  we  find  500  new  applications. 
In  Philadelphia  in  1903  we  find  610  new  applications. 
In  Philadelphia  in  1905  we  find  579  new  applications. 

In  Cincinnati  in  1900  we  find  94  new  applications. 
In  Cincinnati  in  1903  we  find  88  new  applications. 
In  Cincinnati  in  1905  we  find  68  new  applications. 

In  St.  Louis  in  1904  we  find  565  new  applications. 
In  St.  Louis  in  1905  we  find  581  new  applications. 

In  Chicago  in  1900  we  find  2.825  new  applications. 
In  Chicago  in  1903  we  find  2,545  new  applications. 
In  Chicago  in  1905  we  find  3.101  new  applications. 

In  Detroit  in  1904  we  find  127  new  applications. 

In  Detroit  in  1905  we  find  140  new  applications. 

The  surprisingly  small  proportion  of  recently  arrived  immi- 
grants who  apply  for  charity  is  also  worth  mentioning.  In  New 
York,  of  the  total  number  of  new  applications  in  the  year  1905, 
only  34.9  per  cent,  were  from  persons  who  were  in  this  country 
less  than  one  year.  They  represented  only  4.8  per  cent,  of  the 
total  number  of  immigrants  who  arrived  in  New  York  city  with 
the  intention  of  remaining  there. 

In  Philadelphia  we  find  that  of  the  total  number  of  new  appli- 
cations in  1905,  only  14.6  per  cent,  were  from  persons  who  were 
in  the  country  less  than  six  months.  This  certainly  shows,  at 
least  as  far  as  statistical  data  of  relief  organizations  is  concerned, 
that  the  newly  arrived  immigrant  does  not  possess  the  tendency 
to  become  dependent. 

The  absence  of  persistency  in  dependence  is  impressively 
brought  out  by  the  investigation  based  upon  the  experience  of 
two  large  cities,  New  York  and  Chicago. 

In  the  Annual  Report  of  1905  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities 
of  New  York  City,  we  find  the  following  statement :  ' '  Only  three 
per  cent,  of  those  who  originally  applied  in  the  years  '94- '95 
asked  for  assistance  this  year,  but  5.1  per  cent,  of  applicants  be- 
tween the  years  1894  and  1899;  7.5  per  cent,  of  applicants  be- 
tween the  years  1899  and  1903;  14.3  per  cent,  of  those  who  ap- 
plied in  the  year  1903-4  are  applicants  for  assistance  this  year; 


68  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

7.3  per  cent,  of  the  total  applicants  since  1894  were  brought  to 
the  society's  notice  the  last  fiscal  year.  Of  the  applicants  who 
applied  originally  between  1874  and  1894,  450  families  applied 
this  year. ' ' 

In  the  Annual  Report  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of 
Chicago  for  1903,  we  find  a  table  which,  when  reduced  to  per 
cental  ratio,  gives  the  following  proportions  as  to  the  age  or  per- 
sistence of  cases: 

New  cases  9.9  per  cent. 

Assisted  since  1  year. 28.9  per  cent. 

Between  1  and  5  years 19.6  per  cent. 

Between  5  and  10  years 26.7  per  cent. 

Over  ten  years 14.9  per  cent. 

100.0  per  cent. 

The  same  subject  as  to  the  age  of  cases  as  indicated  in  the  ex- 
perience of  New  York,  and  as  given  in  the  Report  of  the  United 
Jewish  Charities  of  1905,  gives  the  following  proportion : 

New  cases 55.2  per  cent. 

Assisted  since  1  year 7.8  per  cent. 

Between  1  and  5  years 17.9  per  cent. 

Between  5  and  10  years 14.6  per  cent. 

Over  10  years  4.5  per  cent. 

100.0  per  cent. 

In  Cincinnati  we  find  that  during  the  year  1905  there  were : 

New  cases 20.9  per  cent. 

Assisted  since  1  year 33.1  per  cent. 

Between  1  and  5  years 28.0  per  cent. 

Between  5  and  10  years 17.9  per  cent. 

A  special  tabulation  of  chronic  cases  of  the  United  Jewish 
Charities  of  Cincinnati  shows  the  following  results : 

New  cases 25.0  per  cent. 

Since  1  year 12.5  per  cent. 

From  1  to  5  years 19.0  per  cent. 

From  5  to  10  years 43.5  per  cent. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  69 

While  in  all  the  cities  under  our  consideration  the  absence  of 
persistence  in  dependence  is  conspicuous,  we  notice,  however,  a 
difference  as  to  the  existing  proportion  between  new  and  recur- 
rent cases.  This  leads  us  to  the  subject  of  "Adequacy  of  Relief" 
in  the  different  localities.  When  we  think  that  the  United 
Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York  make  a  per  capita  expenditure  a 
little  more  than  $6.00,  Chicago  $10.00,  Philadelphia  $33.00,  etc., 
we  can  justly  say  that  even  in  the  selection  of  places  of  residence 
the  poor  must  have  good  fortune.  One  thing,  however,  is  true, 
and  we  may  state  it  without  going  into  deep  mathematical  calcu- 
lations, that  the  charitable  organizations  of  the  larger  cities  are 
unable  to  foster  pauperism,  were  it  even  in  existence.  The  story 
of  the  temperance  union  that  engaged  an  inveterate  drunkard  to 
serve  as  a  concrete  illustration  of  inebriety,  and  was  compelled 
later  on  to  discharge  him  for  lack  of  funds  to  keep  the  example  in 
proper  shape,  seems  to  be  quite  analogous  with  the  position  of  the 
charitable  institutions  of  the  larger  cities. 

Mr.  S.  C.  Lowenstein,  discussing  the  subject  of  "Adequacy  of 
Relief,"  at  the  last  Conference,  said,  "May  we  not  ask  whether 
New  York's  limited  relief  has  discouraged  applications  and 
forced  the  applicants  to  greater  endeavors  to  become  self-sup- 
porting? Or  has  its  manifest  inadequacy  prevented  those  who 
really  may  have  needed  assistance  but  felt  that  it  could  not  be 
obtained,  and  so  sought  it  in  other  quarters?"  Whatever  may 
be  the  case,  inadequate  relief  cannot  be  judicially  advocated  and 
the  cities  that  pride  themselves  upon  a  low  per  capita  expenditure 
in  granting  relief  are  liable  to  go  on  to  an  extreme  detrimental 
to  the  community.  This  is  especially  evident  when  we  consider 
the  causes  of  distress  as  indicated  by  statistical  data. 

The  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York,  in  1905,  show  cash 
relief  disbursements  as  follows: 

28.3  per  cent,  given  to  widows  and  children. 

14.6  per  cent,  given  to  deserted  women.  • 

17.2  per  cent,  given  to  consumptives. 

21.2  per  cent,  given  to  sufferers  from  other  forms  of  illness. 
3.7  per  cent,  given  to  applicants  over  60  years  of  age. 

15.2  per  cent,  given  for  other  causes. 
It  is  rather  surprising  that  not  a  single  Jewish  organization 


70  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

mentions  pauperism  or  unwise  charity  as  an  existing  cause.  This 
may  be  partly  due  to  the  general  misunderstanding  through 
which  only  the  single  cause  is  ascribed  as  a  reason  of  distress, 
whereas  the  truth  is  that  there  is  a  complication  of  causes  in  each 
and  every  case;  and  pauperism,  though  not  distinct  and  separate, 
may  exist  as  a  factor  together  with  many  others. 

The  methods  employed  by  the  Associated  Charities  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  in  the  Annual  Report  of  1905,  by  which  the  causa- 
tion is  elaborately  worked  out,  is  deserving  of  notice,  and  we 
have  taken  it  as  a  standard  for  comparison  between  the  Jewish 
and  non-Jewish  charity  practice. 

According  to  the  classification  accepted  by  this  organization 
we  get  the  following  table : 

Group  1— Responsibility  mainly  within  the  family,  including  de- 
sertion, intemperance,  dishonesty,  etc.  For  Associated  Chari- 
ties of  Washington,  D.  C.,  38  per  cent;  for  United  Hebrew 
Charities  of  New  York  city,  12.6  per  cent. 

Group  2— Responsibility  both  within  and  outside  the  family,  in- 
cluding illness,  death,  etc.  For  Associated  Charities  of 
Washington,  D.  C.,  15.6  per  cent ;  for  United  Hebrew  Chari- 
ties of  New  York  city,  47.8  per  cent. 

Group  3— Responsibility  mainly  outside  the  family,  including 
lack  of  work,  insufficient  income,  etc.  For  Associated  Chari- 
ties of  Washington,  D.  C.,  16.4  per  cent. ;  for  United  Hebrew 
Charities  of  New  York  city,  39.6  per  cent. 
Though  the  proportion  is  somewhat  different,  it  is  self-evident 
that  in  every  city  the  largest  part  of  relief  is  given  to  applicants 
who  are  not  only  worthy,  but  for  whom  perforce,  by  reason  of 
their  circumstances,  aid  must  positively  be  given  in  the  form  of 
material  relief.     Another  condition  as  to  the  number  of  times 
applications  were  received  from  the  same  parties  can  be  seen 
from  the  following  table,  deducted  from  the  data  given  in  the 
Annual  Report  of  1903  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  Chi- 
cago.   Of  the  total  number  of  applicants  for  the  year  1903  : 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  71 

Parties  assisted  once 69  per  cent. 

Parties  assisted  twice 25  per  cent. 

Parties  assisted  three  times 5  per  cent. 

Parties  assisted  four  times 2  per  cent. 

100  per  cent. 

In  conclusion,  to  sum  up  our  arguments  we  wish  to  say,  that 
while  the  material  available  is  not  very  extensive  in  quantity, 
while  all  the  calculations  are  only  approximately  correct,  for  the 
facts  themselves  are  not  accurately  recorded,  still  there  is  no 
doubt  that  Jewish  charity  organizations  need  not  be  in  fear  of 
fostering  or  promoting  pauperism. 

The  Jewish  poor  apply  for  charity  only  in  extreme  need  and 
make  their  utmost  endeavor  to  get  along  without  the  interference 
of  any  charitable  organization  as  soon  as  it  is  possible.  We  have 
seen  that  only  a  small  number  of  applicants  remained  on  the  list 
for  the  period  of  three  years,  a  smaller  still  are  retained  for  five 
years.  The  number  of  new  applications  is  practically  the  same 
for  the  past  five  years.  The  percentage  of  applications  from 
among  recently  arrived  immigrants  is  very  insignificant  as  com- 
pared with  the  total  number  who  come  to  our  shores  annually, 
and  the  causes  of  distress  in  a  very  large  proportion  lie  beyond 
the  control  of  the  individual,  and  in  this  particular  respect  the 
practice  of  Jewish  charity  differs  from  that  of  non- Jewish. 

In  regard  to  the  study  of  individual  cases  it  is  gratifying  to 
state  that  in  almost  every  instance  the  superintendents  of  the 
different  organizations  state  that  they  do  not  find  that  there  is  a 
tendency  among  our  people  to  rely  on  charity  for  support  and  to 
become  what  are  generally  known  as  paupers. 

DISCUSSION. 

ME.  MORRIS  JACOBY,  New  York :  I  wish  to  say  that  while  the 
gentleman's  figures  are  very  interesting,  as  he  himself  says,  they 
are  not  accurate  as  far  as  New  York  is  concerned.  The  United 
Hebrew  Charities  is  only  a  small  factor  in  the  charities  there. 
In  the  City  of  New  York,  East  Side,  we  have  from  three  to  five 
hundred  charitable  organizations,  some  of  which  have  fifteen 
members,  and  some  of  which  have  200  members.  It  has  become 
a  habit  in  New  York  of  a  great  many  who  come  from  the  cities. 


72  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

towns  and  villages  in  Russia,  to  incorporate  a  relief  associa- 
tion to  relieve  those  that  may  come  from  the  same  place,  and 
they  never  apply,  or  very  seldom  apply  to  the  United  Hebrew 
Charities.  Their  own  neighbors,  their  own  relatives,  their  own 
friends  relieve  them,  so  that  they  need  not  apply  to  the  United 
Hebrew  Charities — so  as  not  to  become  subjects  of  charity,  and 
to  relieve  themselves.  We,  who  represent  the  Hebrew  Free 
Loan  Association,  last  year  loaned  money  to  18,000  applicants, 
and  made  them  self-supporting.  We  loaned  out  last  year,  of 
which  the  speaker  mentioned  nothing,  to  15,226  persons,  $364,- 
480,  of  which  there  was  returned  to  us  $356,944. 

In  the  fourteen  years  in  which  our  Association  has  been  in 
existence,  we  loaned  to  88,592  people,  $1,913,191,  all  but  one  per 
cent,  of  which  has  been  returned  to  us.  We  do  not  say  that 
among  the  many  applicants  there  were  not  repeaters.  Some  of 
them  have  borrowed  from  us  twice,  three,  four  and  five,  and  as 
as  high  as  ten  times  until  they  were  self-supporting.  We  get 
letters  from  men  occasionally  who  have  now  become  lenders  and 
patrons — lenders  of  funds  to  our  organization.  We  loan  money 
without  interest.  We  loan  from  $5  to  $200,  taking  it  back  in 
small  instalments,  in  any  way  that  the  borrower  may  be  able  to 
return  it,  within  a  reasonable  time,  some  of  them  take  as  long 
as  six  months.  We  have  loaned  to  students  while  they  go  tn 
college ;  we  have  loaned  to  professional  men  after  graduating  to 
enable  them  to  open  an  office  as  dentist  or  doctor,  etc.,  and  they 
pay  it  back  to  us  as  the  patients  or  clients  enable  them  to  pay 
it  back  to  us.  There  are  a  good  many  cases  that  we  have  re- 
lieved in  that  way;  they  cease  to  become  subjects  of  charity,  or 
we  have  prevented  them  from  becoming  subjects  of  charity,  and 
for  that  reason  I  think  the  figures  stated  by  the  gentleman  are 
to  some  extent  incorrect. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  Knowing  that  any  of  the  statements  in 
regard  to  the  work  of  the  free  loan  associations — a  subject 
which  we  had  fully  under  consideration  at  the  last  Confer- 
ence— would  be  extremely  interesting  and  show  not  the  persist- 
ency but  the  evidence  of  dependency,  the  chairman  permitted 
Mr.  Jacoby  to  continue  in  his  remarks,  although  the  subject  of 
the  paper  was  the  "Persistency  of  Dependence  as  Indicated  by 


NATIONAL,    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  73 

Relief  Statistics;"  therefore,  the  remarks,  although  extremely 
interesting,  and  the  work  of  the  loan  association  deserving  of 
the  very  highest  applause  and  commendation,  are  not  quite  in 
order. 

Miss  SADEE  AMERICAN,  New  York :  I  would  like  to  ask  a  ques- 
tion of  Cincinnati.  The  smallness  of  the  first  group  in  the  last 
statistics  given  is  so  very  remarkable,  I  would  like  to  ask  Cin- 
cinnati how  they  managed  it — the  group  called  "Criminality" 
by  Dr.  Bogen. 

DR.  BOGEN  :  I  was  expecting  this  question.  This  group  was 
different  from  the  others.  The  smallness  in  the  number  of  de- 
sertions in  Cincinnati  makes  the  group  very  small  in  comparison 
with  other  cities. 

MR.  MAX  HERZBERG:  I  do  not  know  that  Cincinnati  is  any 
more  moral  than  possibly  Detroit  or  Cleveland,  to  say  nothing  of 
Chicago,  Philadelphia- or  New  York,  but,  after  all,  Mr.  President, 
figures  can  be  made  to  prove  almost  anything,  and  the  effect  that 
their  deduction  has  brought  about,  in  reference,  for  instance,  to 
per  capita,  is  an  instance  in  mind.  Where,  for  instance,  New 
York  reports  spending  only  $6.00  per  capita  upon  each  case  they 
have  reported  on  their  books,  Philadelphia  proudly  acknowl- 
edges (although  possibly  some  persons  think  we  ought  to  hold  our 
heads  in  shame),  that  it  spends  $3.00  per  annum,  and  possibly 
the  difference  is  this:  We  never  record  an  instance,  where  we 
may  give  a  man  out  of  our  own  pockets,  twenty-five  or  fifty 
cents;  in  fact,  we  very  rarely  do  that.  Nor  does  the 
man  or  woman  who  comes  to  the  office  of  the  United  Hebrew 
Charities  and  expects  to  get  $2  ever  get  it.  They  have  no  busi- 
ness with  the  United  Hebrew  Charities.  Of  course,  you  can  jug- 
gle figures  to  prove  anything.  Nevertheless,  I  think  that  in  a 
general  sense  the  effort  of  Dr.  Bogen  has  been  a  very  interest- 
ing one.  It  is  a  subject  well  worth  pursuing — well  worth  know- 
ing what  other  communities  have  done,  and  I  for  one  am  very 
glad  to  have  seen  it  done,  and  thank  Dr.  Bogen  for  the  time  and 
attention  given  to  it. 

DR.  JACOB  HOLLANDER,  Baltimore:  The  interesting  paper 
which  Dr.  Bogen  has  read  and  graphically  illustrated, 


74  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

is  a  very  pleasing  exhibit,  it  seems  to  me,  of  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  Federation  of  Jewish  Charities  in  five  of  the 
cities  and  of  the  peculiar  efficiency  of  the  Cincinnati  organiza- 
tion. I  think  we  pricked  up  our  ears  a  little  at  some  of  the  mar- 
velous differences  in  percentages  between  the  same  colony  in  the 
five  cities.  I  was  struck  also  by  the  occurrence  of  the  exact  per- 
centage— 15,  20  and  25;  it  is  a  very  rare  coincidence.  That  will 
occur  in  the  best  regulated  statistics.  But  I  think  it  would  be 
very  regrettable  if  the  Conference  should  content  itself  with  so 
rosy  and  optimistic  a  picture  as  exhibiting  the  actual  condition 
of  relief  in  the  United  States.  You  will  all  agree,  I  think,  that 
whatever  other  virtues  may  attach  thereto  and  whatever  difficul- 
ties may  accompany  the  Federation  or  the  organization  of  the 
Jewish  charitable  organizations  of  a  city,  two  results  are  inva- 
riably present.  One  is  a  correlation  of  the  existing  relief  socie- 
ties, by  virtue  of  which  relief  is  subject  to  less  duplication  (it  is 
not  entirely  eliminated,  but  in  the  main  it  is  made  more  difficult 
for  the  same  energetic  applicants  to  receive  relief  for  the  same 
ailment  from  two  or  three  organizations  at  the  same  time)  and 
the  second  result  of  the  federation  is  that  the  relief  which  is  ad- 
ministered, is  given  with  a  great  deal  more  care.  The  mere  fact 
that  Dr.  Bogen  found  it  possible  to  gather  statistics  from  only 
these  five  cities  indicates  that  the  records  and  classifications  are 
more  carefully  kept,  and  the  showing  is  far  superior  in  them. 
What  I  mean  to  suggest,  is  that  the  figures  which  he  has  given 
us  are  applicable  only  to  these  five  cities — the  most  advanced  or- 
ganizations in  the  United  States,  and  are  by  no  means  applicable, 
even  if  they  were  statistically  accurate  in  every  detail  to  the  con- 
dition of  charity  dispensation  throughout  the  United  States,  and 
it  would  be  very  regrettable,  I  think,  if  we  were  to  solace  our- 
selves with  the  cheery  picture  placed  before  us. 

MR.  MAX  SENIOR,  Cincinnati :  Without  adding  anything  par- 
ticular to  the  discussion,  I  wish  merely  to  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  Dr.  Bogen,  with  whom  I  collaborated  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  some  of  these  figures,  found  it  almost  impossible  to  get 
head  or  tail  out  of  some  of  the  statistics.  This  matter  was  the 
subject  of  a  discussion  at  the  very  first  Conference  we  had.  I 
suggest  that  the  details  shown  in  this  picture  may  have  some  in- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  75 

fluence  in  keeping  the  proper  form  of  records  in  the  various  or- 
ganizations. There  is  no  community  so  small  or  insignificant 
that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  keep  statistics  and  proper  records 
in  that  community,  as  all  of  these  little  communities,  and  the 
large  ones  throw  some  light  upon  the  condition  of  the  Jews  in 
the  United  States,  and  furnish  us  in  many  cases  with  magnifi- 
cent ammunition  against  the  attacks  of  the  immigration  restriet- 
ionists.  I  hope  that  the  forms  that  are  in  use  in  the  federated 
charities  of  the  larger  cities  may  be  speedily  adopted  in  the 
smaller  cities,  so  that  these  statistics  may  be  available  for  the 
very  valuable  use  to  which  they  can  be  put. 

MAY  7,  2.30  P.  M.      JEWISH  FOSTER  HOME  AND  ORPHAN  ASYLUM. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  BOARDING  AND  PLACING  OUT  JEW- 
ISH DEPENDENT  CHILDREN. 

LUDWIG  B.  BERNSTEIN,  PH.D.,  Superintendent,  Hebrew  Shelter- 
ing Guardian  Society  of  New  York. 
(Orphan  Asylum.) 

In  presenting  to  you  this  subject,  it  appears  to  me  wisest  to 
divide  it  into  three  parts ;  first,  the  theoretical  aspect  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  secondly,  the  practical  results  thus  far  achieved  by  the  Xew 
York  Bureau ;  and  lastly,  the  presentation  of  a  few  typical  cases. 
I.— The  Theoretical  Aspect  of  the  Problem  of  Boarding  and 
Placing  Out  Jewish  Dependent  Children. 

Assuming  that  the  normal  parental  home  is  the  best  child-car- 
ing method,  it  might  be  interesting  to  analyze  some  of  the  factors 
that  help  to  make  the  parental  home  the  very  best  and  most 
natural  method  of  taking  care  of  children.  So  far  as  I  can  see. 
there  are  among  other  elements,  the  following  five,  which  we 
might  call  the  essentials : 

1.  The  affection  and  tender  care  given  to  the  child  even  in  the 
poorest  home,  constitute  the  sunshine  necessary  for  the  natural 
growth  of  the  child. 

2.  The  frequent  expressions  of  rapture,  joy  and  encouragement 
on  the  part  of  the  parents  over  the  slightest  possible  manifesta- 
tion of  progress  in  the  child  form  a  second  important  element, 
psychologically  almost  as  strong  and  valuable  as  the  first. 

3.  The  child's  contact  in  school  with  hundreds  of  other  types 


76  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

of  children  of  similar  and  different  home  surroundings,  the 
numerous  friendships,  comradeships  and  rivalries  which  a  normal 
school  life  naturally  engenders,  and  in  general,  the  inter-relation 
of  the  two  great  social  factors,  the  home  and  the  public  school, 
are  a  powerful  stimulus  for  the  development  of  the  child  as  a 
social  unit. 

4.  The  consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  child  of  occupying  a  dis- 
tinct place  in  the  family  economy,  together  with  his  observation 
of  the  relations  of  various  members  of  the  family  to  one  another, 
and  to  the  child  himself,  may  be  considered  as  another  important 
element  in  the  social  training  of  the  child. 

5.  The  varied  acquaintance  with  practical  problems  of  life,  the 
knowledge  of  money  values,  which  the  child  in  the  ordinary  home 
acquires  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  daily  relations  of  outside  life 
to  the  home,  the  numerous  interests,  proficiencies  and  accomplish- 
ments which  the  child  in  the  parental  home  absorbs  without  con- 
scious effort,  are  a  valuable  equipment  for  his  future  struggle  in 
life. 

Using  the  five  essential  characteristics  of  the  normal  parental 
home  as  a  criterion  by  which  to  measure  the  relative  merits  of 
the  various  child-caring  methods,  we  have  to  consider  above  all 
that  plan  which  will  make  it  possible  to  train  the  dependent  child 
in  his  own  parental  home,  namely : 

1.  —  The  Method  of  Pensioning  Parent  or  Parents  or  the  Family. 

It  is  needless  to  argue  that  the  preservation  of  family  life  is 
one  of  the  fundamental  concerns  of  organized  society.  The  first 
great  method  of  taking  care  of  dependent  children  is  therefore 
the  same  as  that  of  taking  care  of  non-dependent  children :  the 
natural  home. 

On  theoretical  grounds  a  system  of  liberal  pensions  in  order  to 
prevent  the  breaking  up  of  families  even  temporarily  is  cer- 
tainly the  most  natural,  the  most  advisable,  and  I  would  say,  the 
most  advanced  plan.  Caution,  of  course,  must  be  taken  that  the 
child  or  the  children  in  a  family,  receiving  pension,  should  not 
be  made  to  feel  that  they  are  dependent  on  or  the  recipients  of 
charity.  The  supply  to  such  children  of  wearing  apparel,  bearing 
the  distinctive  mark  of  the  ' '  Charity  Bureau  quality, ' '  has  a  posi- 
tively demoralizing  effect.  This  method  of  pensioning  presup- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  77 

poses  first  of  all  adequacy  of  pensioning,  and  takes  furthermore 
into  consideration  supplementary  supervision  of  children  in  case 
of  sickness  or  physical  incapacity  on  the  part  of  one  or  both 
parents. 

Semi-inadequate  or  inadequate  pension  is  an  injustice  to  the 
children  as  well  as  to  the  parents.  Its  consequence  may  be  not  a 
normal,  but  an  abnormal  home,  not  a  naturally  poor  home,  throb- 
bing with  the  cheerful  hope  of  better  days,  but  a  miserable  ex- 
istence marked  by  cheerlessness  and  by  a  lack  of  that  individual 
care  and  attention  which  is  the  foremost  characteristic  of  the 
normal  home.  In  the  absence  of  funds  fairly  adequate  to  pen- 
sion a  family  on  a  self-respecting  basis,  it  would  seem  to  be  much 
more  advisable  to  relieve  temporarily  the  parent  or  parents  of  the 
care  of  the  children,  and  to  give  the  struggling  father  or  mother 
a  chance  to  reach  a  self-supporting  stage  with  a  view  of  returning 
the  child  to  them  as  speedily  as  possible. 

But  whatever  maybe  the  just  objections  to  an  inadequate  pension 
plan,  let  us  remember  that  the  natural  parental  home,  adequately 
supported  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  it  intact,  holds  the  highest 
rank  among  the  various  methods  of  taking  care  of  dependent 
children. 

2. — Home  of  Adoption. 

We  now  pass  to  the  second  child-caring  plan,  which  preserves 
practically  all  the  characteristics  of  the  natural  parental  home : 
I  mean  the  free  home,  or  the  home  of  adoption. 

At  this  juncture  the  question  arises  as  to  whether,  outside  of 
the  natural  home,  a  child  is  better  taken  care  of  in  a  private  home 
or  in  an  institution.  In  the  chaos  of  conflicting  opinions  on  this 
subject,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the  following : 

The  advocates  of  the  institution  plan  concentrate  their  chief 
arguments  on  the  contention  that  a  well-managed  institution  gives 
the  child  a  superior  equipment,  for  life.  In  support  of  such  an 
argument  they  say  that  the  institution  offers  to  its  wards,  in  ad- 
dition to  a  sound  scholastic  and  religious  education,  excellent 
facilities  for  social  development  together  with  splendid  oppor- 
tunities for  musical  and  manual  training,  military  drill,  athletics, 
etc.  They  furthermore  claim  in  favor  of  the  institution,  that  its 


78  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

wards  develop  a  very  considerable  degree  of  self-control,  owing 
to  the  habits  of  regularity,  obedience  and  promptness  which  such 
children  readily  acquire  in  a  short  time. 

On  the  other  hand  the  advocates  of  the  home  of  adoption  consider 
the  home  influence,  the  individualism  of  the  child  and  the  realiza- 
tion of  all  the  elements  that  enter  into  the  development  of  the 
average  child  in  the  normal  parental  home  as  by  far  more  potent 
factors  for  the  future  of  the  child  as  a  useful  member  of  society 
than  band  music,  military  drill  and  manual  training.  They  con- 
sider home  life  as  even  more  important  than  the  extraordinary 
advantages  of  acquiring  habits  of  regularity,  promptness  and 
obedience.  Furthermore,  they  prefer  the  charge  against  the  pre- 
vailing congregate  institutions  that  in  a  number  of  instances  their 
alumni,  especially  those  that  had  spent  with  them  a  very  long 
period,  were  found  to  be  lacking  in  initiative,  in  self-reliance  and 
in  those  qualities  that  make  for  manhood  and  womanhood. 

Confining  ourselves  to  the  problem  of  full  orphans  or  totally 
abandoned  children,  or  in  other  words,  of  children  who  are  per- 
manently deprived  of  a  hom,e,  I  may  say  that  by  far  the  weightier 
arguments  are  on  the  side  of  the  home  of  adoption.  Even  the 
most  enthusiastic  adherent  of  the  institution  method  will  have  to 
agree  to  the  cardinal  point,  that  it  is  a  physical  impossibility  for 
him  to  offer  that  tender  care  and  affection  to  each  individual  child 
that  he  is  anxious  to  give.  The  moment  he  admits  the  impossi- 
bility of  doing  so,  he  subscribes  to  the  main  contention  made  by 
the  advocates  of  the  free  home,  and  the  problem  then  presents 
itself  in  this  way : 

Under  what  conditions  is  a  home  of  adoption  the  best  child- 
caring  method?  It  is  desirable,  first,  if  the  home  is  good  and 
promising,  promising  as  far  as  the  future  of  the  child  is  con- 
cerned. It  is  furthermore  desirable  if  the  foster  parents  have  no 
children  and  are  willing  to  take  the  burden  of  bringing  up  a  very 
young  child.  Thirdly,  it  is  desirable  only,  if  an  agreement  is 
made  by  which  the  home  can  be  made  subject  to  frequent  intelli- 
gent inspection  before  and,  to  some  extent,  after  the  adoption  of 
the  child. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  policy  of  placing  children  ranging  be- 
tween ten  and  fifteen  years  of  age  into  distant  homes  of  adoption, 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  79 

a  policy  by  no  means  uncommon  among  non-Jewish  child-placing 
agencies,  must  be  emphatically  condemned.  In  a  number  of  in- 
stances it  has  resulted  in  ruined  careers  and  in  slavery. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  home  of  adoption  is  the  superior 
child-caring  method  only  for  full  orphans  and  abandoned  chil- 
dren up  to  ten  years  of  age.  It  is  not  available  for  orphans  of 
over  ten  years  of  age,  nor  is  it  available  for  half  orphans  and 
temporarily  destitute  or  dependent  children.  What  is  to  become 
of  the  three  classes  of  children  just  mentioned?  Is  it  wiser  to 
place  them  in  a  boarding  home  or  in  an  institution  ? 

3.— Boarding  Home  or  Institution? 

Using  as  a  basis  of  judgment  the  five  characteristics  of  the  nor- 
mal parental  home,  the  institution  enthusiast  has  again  to  yield 
to  the  superiority  of  the  ideal  boarding  home.  In  the  latter  it  is 
absolutely  possible  to  get  every  essential  characteristic  of  the 
natural  home.  But  the  difficulty  of  the  whole  question  lies  in 
this :  Are  the  available  boarding  homes  ideal,  and  with  particular 
reference  to  the  Jewish  problem,  are  our  Jewish  boarding  homes 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  make  them  a  powerful  rival  to  the  best  in- 
stitutional care  that  has  been  devised  for  children  temporarily 
dependent  ?  f 

The  city  of  Boston  and  the  State  of  Massachusetts  have  perma- 
nently abandoned  their  children's  homes  by  introducing  a  board- 
ing out  system  on  a  large  scale.  Homer  Folks,  in  Chapter  XII 
of  his  book  "The  Care  of  Destitute,  Neglected  and  Dependent 
Children, ' '  in  speaking  of  the  present  tendencies,  remarks  that  it 
is  doubtful  whether  any  other  States  will  emulate  the  example  of 
Massachusetts  and  of  Boston  in  doing  away  altogether  with  "tem- 
porary" institutions. 

Edward  T.  Devine,  in  his  excellent  book  "Principles  of  Re- 
lief." coolly  and  impartially  discusses  the  advantages  and  dis- 
advantages of  both  methods  without  passing  final  judgment  as  to 
which  of  the  two  methods  is  better. 

In  this  connection,  you  must  further  consider  the  fact  that  the 
motive  in  applying  for  the  care  of  a  child  in  the  case  of  the 
boarding  mother  is  not  quite  as  pure  as  that  of  the  childless 
mother.  Even  in  the  good  boarding  homes  the  question  of  pecu- 


80  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

niary  consideration  enters  as  an  element  more  or  less  potent,  by 
which  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  because  of  this  element  the  home 
is  necessarily  bad.  In  my  experience  with  Jewish  boarding  homes 
for  children,  I  have  found  that  the  care  and  attention  given  by 
boarding  mothers  to  a  child  are  certainly  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  small  compensation  given  them.  Moreover,  I  may  definitely 
say  that  in  a  majority  of  cases  the  charitable  instinct  is  at  least 
as  strong  as  the  desire  for  compensation. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  child,  it  is  a  fact  that  certain 
children  will  never  thrive  and  prosper  in  an  institution,  such  as 
a  certain  class  of  children  that  are  nervous  by  nature ;  children 
that  are  somewhat  ungovernable,  so-called  mischievous  children; 
some  children  who  are  semi-deficient  mentally  and  children  that 
come  from  a  physically  weak  ancestry,  etc.  Even  the  staunchest 
friends  of  the  institution  plan  for  temporarily  dependent  children 
will  have  to  grant  this  point. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  enthusiasts  of  the  boarding  home,  both 
Jewish  and  non-Jewish,  will  have  to  admit  that  there  are  certain 
children  who  need  the  trained  skill  of  the  pedagogue  rather  than 
the  common  sense  treatment  that  the  average  foster  mother  is 
capable  of  giving,  and  that  by  far  the  majority  of  the  boarding 
mothers  and  fathers  have  to  divide  their  cares  between  their  own 
children  and  the  children  placed  with  them.  The  boarding  home 
friends  will  also  have  to  admit  reluctantly  that  the  boarding 
home,  as  a  rule,  is  not  of  the  same  high  type  as  the  free  home. 

Finally,  they  will  have  to  admit  that  there  are  numerous  chil- 
dren, the  product  of  Jewish  institution  training,  who  have  in- 
deed developed  a  high  type  of  character  and  a  rare  degree  of 
ability — that  the  Jewish  institutions  have  a  higher  conception  of 
their  educational  aims  for  their  wards  than  some  non-Jewish  in- 
stitutions, and  that  a  fair  majority  of  their  alumni  are  certainly 
successful  in  life. 

Summing  up  again  the  theoretical  aspect  of  the  question,  it 
must  be  said  that,  if  ideal  boarding  homes  could  be  secured  in 
large  numbers,  irrespective  of  cost  and  maintenance,  that  I  would 
consider  this  method  as  superior  to  that  of  the  institution.  But, 
on  this  point,  theory  and  practical  experience  do  not  blend. 
There  are  homes,  pseudo-homes  and  miserable  homes. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  81 

Until  such  time  as  it  will  be  possible  to  secure  a  uniformly 
high  standard  of  boarding  homes,  as  high  a  type  as  that  of  the 
free  home — and  I  do  not  say  that  this  is  impossible — until  such 
time  as  the  Jewish  communities  are  willing  to  invest  large  sums 
of  money  to  pay  liberally  for  the  highest  possible  class  of  board- 
ing homes— and  I  hope  that  they  will  do  so— the  boarding  homes 
will  remain  confined  to  the  special  class  of  temporarily  dependent 
children  referred  to  above,  and  the  institution  will  remain  the 
chief  child-caring  agency,  especially  if  it  frees  itself  of  the  just 
criticisms  and  objections. 

I  refer  here  to  the  justified  criticism  that  the  congregate  insti- 
tution is  carrying  out  on  a  smaller  scale  the  ancient  Greek- 
Spartan  ideal  of  collective  training  of  youth ;  an  objection  which 
the  cottage  home  institution  has  successfully  met.  The  cottage 
home  has  also  made  adequate  provision  for  a  practical  training  in 
economic  values,  and  has  made  it  possible  to  individualize  chil- 
dren on  a  satisfactory  basis. 

4.— Scattered  Cottage  Plan. 

Before  passing  over  to  the  practical  workings  of  the  Bureau  of 
Boarding  and  Placing  out  Jewish  Dependent  Children,  permit  me 
to  mention  one  more  child-caring  method  which,  to  my  knowledge, 
has  not  yet  been  attempted  in  this  country,  a  plan  which  com- 
bines all  the  intrinsic  merits  of  the  natural  home  training  with- 
out involving  the  difficulties  encountered  in  finding  first  class 
boarding  homes  for  normally  dependent  children. 

I  refer  to  the  plan  of  establishing  scattered  cottages  with  a 
higher  type  of  women  or  possibly  couples,  to  keep  house  in  each 
cottage,  or  flat  for  only  five  or  six  children.  Such  a  mother,  or 
matron,  or  cottage  couple  should  be  given  a  certain  allowance  for 
the  economical  management  of  their  house  or  flat,  and  for  the 
proper  training  to  be  given  to  the  children.  The  supervision  of 
all  such  cottages  or  flats  could  be  made  central. 

I  am  satisfied  that  ultimately,  such  a  plan,  which  is  theoreti- 
cally closely  akin  to  the  ideal  boarding  home,  might  possibly  yield 
better  results  than  an  elaborate  cottage  home  institution. 


82  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

II.— Practical  Results  Achieved  by  the  New  York  Jewish  Bureau 
of  Boarding  and  Placing  out  Jewish  Dependent  Children. 

In  passing  over  to  the  practical  results  achieved  by  the  Bureau, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  remark  that  we  have  intentionally  en- 
croached upon  the  domain  of  the  existing  Jewish  Orphan  Asy- 
lums only  in  as  far  as  we  have  dealt  with  and  have  assumed  the 
resonsibility  for  total  orphans  and  abandoned  children  up  to  ten 
years  of  age.  In  regard  to  all  other  classes  of  children  that  the 
Bureau  has  taken  care  of,  it  has  performed  an  important  supple- 
mentary function  to  that  of  the  existing  child-caring  institutions 
of  New  York,  rather  than  a  co-equal  one.  I  mean  by  this,  that  in 
addition  to  the  total  orphans  and  abandoned  children  up  to  ten 
years  of  age,  the  Bureau  has  dealt  with  a  peculiarly  local  situa- 
tion which  we  have  to  face  in  New  York,  namely,  with  the  prob- 
lem of  overcrowded  Jewish  institutions,  with  the  problem  of  a 
large  number  of  Jewish  children  in  non-Jewish  institutions,  and 
with  the  problem  of  preventing  the  commitment  to  non-Jewish 
ringworm  and  trachoma  hospitals  of  such  children  as  might  be 
safely  admitted  to  private  homes  but  not  to  institutions.  Lastly, 
the  Bureau  has  attempted  to  aid  the  various  child-caring  institu- 
tions in  placing  in  suitable  boarding  homes  such  of  their  inmates 
as  were  in  particular  need  of  individual  attention  and  care,  owing 
to  such  causes  as  nervousness,  mental  semi-deficiency  and  poor 
health. 

On  July  1,  1905,  Miss  Sarah  Michaels,  on  behalf  of  the  Joint 
Committee  on  Jewish  Dependent  Children,  handed  over  to  us 
ninety-four  cases  of  children  that  had  been  cared  for  by  her  in 
various  ways,  Jewish  children,  who,  through  her  efforts,  had 
either  been  adopted  or  placed  into  free  homes,  or  into  boarding 
homes,  or  had  been  returned  to  their  parents  and  relatives,  or  had 
been  sent  to  hospitals  or  child-caring  institutions. 

On  the  same  date,  the  management  of  the  Bureau  was  shifted 
to  the  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian  Orphan  Asylum,  with  the 
understanding  that  as  far  as  the  child-placing  work  was  con- 
cerned, it  was  to  act  under  the  auspices  of  the  Joint  Committee 
on  Jewish  Dependent  Children,  said  committee  consisting  of 
representatives  of  the  following  institutions  of  New  York:  The 
United  Hebrew  Charities,  the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  the  He- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  83 

brew  Sheltering  Guardian  Society,  the  Hebrew  Infant  Asylum, 
the  Jewish  Protectory  and  the  Brooklyn  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum. 

On  December  16,  1906,  eighteen  months  after  the  re-organiza- 
tion of  the  Bureau  by  the  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian  Orphan 
Asylum,  the  number  of  new  children  handled  was  333. 

The  total  number  of  children  thus  handled  since  the  inception 
of  the  Bureau  in  1903  is  427.  Some  of  the  following  facts  may  be 
of  interest  to  you: 

1.  Total  number  of  applications  for  children  received  since 

July  1.  1905 838 

2.  Number  of  applications  for  the  adoption  of  children ....   134 

3.  Number  of  applications  for  adoption  of  children  rejected 

as  unfavorable  72 

4.  Number  of  applications  for  the  adoption  of  children  fa- 

vorably passed  upon  and  filled 39 

5.  Number  of  applications    of    families    offering    boarding 

homes  to  children 704 

6.  Number   of   applications   of   families   offering  boarding 

homes  rejected  as  unsuitable 536 

7.  Number  of  children  placed  in  suitable  boarding  homes . . .   174 

8.  Total  number  of  free  homes,  old  and  new  cases 45 

9.  Total  number  of  children  placed  in  board,  old  and  new 

cases 238 

10.  Total  number  of  children  under  actual  supervision  at 

the  present  time 205 

As  regards  the  method  pursued  by  the  Bureau,  all  that  is  nec- 
essary to  say  in  this  connection  is  that  the  most  approved  meth- 
ods, such  as  are  used  by  the  Children's  Aid  Societies  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  York,  were  adopted  with  such  modifications  as 
our  peculiarly  Jewish  conditions  seemed  to  require. 

The  following  is  a  very  brief  description  of  the  modus  oper- 
andi  used  by  our  Bureau : 

The  applicant  fills  out  a  blank  containing  about  twenty  ques- 
tions. These  questions  refer  to  his  occupation,  place  of  birth, 
age,  number  of  relatives  and  children  living  in  the  house,  their 
occupation,  number  of  rooms,  character  of  the  neighborhood  of 
the  house,  distance  from  the  school,  possibility  of  giving  the  child 


S4  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

a  proper  training  in  Hebrew  and  religion,  the  motive  in  applying 
for  the  child,  the  kind  of  child  the  applicant  is  desirous  of  taking 
into  his  home,  etc.  The  applicant  must  give  as  his  references  at 
least  three  gentlemen  not  related  to  him. 

Immediately  upon  receipt  of  application,  the  visitor  makes  a 
personal  inspection  of  the  home,  and  after  such  inspection,  refer- 
ence blanks  are  furnished  to  the  parties  mentioned  by  the  appli- 
cant. The  questions  on  the  reference  blanks  are  framed  with  a 
view  of  securing  accurate  information  as  to  the  general  character 
of  the  applicant,  as  to  the  nature  and  disposition  of  his  wife,  his 
social  and  financial  standing  in  the  community,  and  as  to  their 
ability  to  give  a  young,  unprotected  child  a  proper  physical,  moral 
and  religious  training.  Under  no  circumstances  must  the  appli- 
cant be  the  recipient  of  charity  of  any  kind. 

When  the  references  are  found  to  be  satisfactory,  a  child  is 
selected  for  the  home.  Before  or  soon  after  such  child  is  de- 
livered to  the  foster  parents,  a  very  careful  and  detailed  medical 
examination  is  made  of  the  child's  physical  condition,  and  the 
record  of  such  examination  is  filed  for  future  reference. 

Of  the  704  families  offering  boarding  homes  for  children, 
there  were  naturally  very  many  who  applied  solely  with  a  view 
of  paying  off  their  debts,  or  the  mortgages  on  a  farm,  or,  in  gen- 
eral, with  a  view  of  replenishing  their  depleted  finances.  A 
number  of  applicants  "were  recipients  of  charity.  Every  pre- 
caution was  taken  to  exclude  homes  of  this  kind  with  the  result 
that  536  applicants  have  been  rejected  as  unfit.  Among  the  re- 
maining boarding  homes  that  were  approved  and  filled  within 
the  past  eighteen  months,  there  are  possibly  as  many  as  twenty- 
five  that  will  ultimately  be  turned  into  free  homes. 

Of  the  134  applications  for  children  to  be  adopted  there  were 
several  that  came  from  physicians,  lawyers  and  teachers;  most 
of  them,  however,  came  from  prosperous  merchants.  There  were 
also  a  number  of  applications  offering  free  homes  to  girls  of  13, 
14  and  15  years  of  age.  As  a  rule,  such  loving  souls  were  very 
anxious  to  have  a  ' '  companion ' '  who  would  do  just  a  ' '  little  light 
housework. "  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  kind  of  appli- 
cation is  treated  as  a  pretext  for  getting  a  servant  girl  without 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  85 

pay.  Of  the  39  free  homes  actually  filled  during  the  past 
eighteen  months,  there  has  not  been  a  single  failure.  Every  one 
of  the  children  is  doing  splendidly  and  has  helped  to  bring  sun- 
shine into  a  childless  home. 

An  analysis  of  the  704  applications  offering  boarding  homes  to 
children  reveals  the  following  interesting  facts : 

Three  hundred  and  fifty-seven  applications  were  received  from 
the  borough  of  Manhattan,  125  from  the  Bronx,  75  from  various 
localities  in  the  State  of  New  York,  5  from  Maryland,  38  from 
Connecticut,  2  from  North  Dakota,  27  from  Pennsylvania,  1  from 
Texas,  45  from  New  Jersey,  8  from  Michigan,  7  from  Massachu- 
setts, 5  from  Ohio,  1  from  New  Hampshire,  1  from  Virginia,  1 
from  Minnesota,  2  from  Wisconsin,  2  from  Illinois,  1  from  Ver- 
mont, 1  from  Iowa. 

Similarly,  the  134  applications  for  the  adoption  of  children  are 
distributed  over  a  very  wide  range  of  localities;  thus,  52  were 
received  from  Manhattan  Borough,  21  from  Brooklyn,  13  from 
various  localities  in  the  State  of  New  York,  13  from  New  Jersey, 
7  from  Massachusetts,  6  from  Connecticut,  3  from  Rhode  Island, 
3  from  Pennsylvania,  2  from  Indiana,  4  from  Michigan,  2  from 
Wisconsin,  1  from  Maryland,  2  from  North  Dakota,  1  from  Geor- 
gia. 1  from  Illinois,  1  from  Canada,  1  from  Maine,  1  from 
Florida  and  1  from  Alaska. 

In  order  to  maintain  a  proper  system  of  supervision  and  in- 
spection, the  Bureau  employs  a  staff  of  three  who  are  required 
to  give  frequent  reports  of  the  visits  paid  to  the  homes.  As  a 
consequence  of  such  frequent  visits,  it  was  found  necessary  to 
transfer  24  children  from  one  home,  to  another. 

///. — Two  Typical  Cases  Employed  by  the  Bureau. 

In  conclusion,  permit  me  to  present  to  you  two  cases  as  an 
illustration  of  the  practical  workings  of  the  Bureau.  The  first 
case  is  that  of  a  child  Rubin. 

October  4,  1905 :  Rubin  was  this  day  placed  with  Mr.  A.  Men- 
delsohn, of  New  York  city,  at  the  rate  of  $104  per  annum. 

October  6, 1905 :  Visited  child.  Rubin  is  very  careless,  slovenly 
and  stubborn.  In  appearance,  very  untidy.  People  complain 
that  they  have  a  good  deal  of  trouble  with  him.  This  child,  being 
a  total  orphan,  whose  mother  died  in  Manhattan  State  Hospital, 


86  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

is  a  fit  subject  for  indenture ;  but  it  is  necessary  to  keep  him  for 
awhile  in  a  boarding  home,  so  as  to  prepare  him  for  his  future 
permanent  home. 

October  8,  1905:  Visited  home.  Child  has  attended  Temple 
Israel  Kindergarten  School,  but  the  teacher  insists  on  his  being 
withdrawn  for  a  short  time,  because  he  is  too  negligent  and  dirty. 
I  have  instructed  the  foster  mother  to  pay  special  attention  to  the 
child's  cleanliness. 

October  14,  1905:  Child  was  visited  in  company  with  several 
gentlemen.  Rubin  was  playing  in  a  park  with  Isidor,  the  son  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mendelsohn.  Foster  mother  informs  me  that  Rubin 
has  considerably  improved  in  his  habits,  particularly  as  far  as 
cleanliness  and  table  manners  are  concerned. 

October  20,  1905 :  Child  is  doing  splendidly ;  is  attending  kin- 
dergarten. Teacher  reports  that  she  has  no  trouble  with  the  child, 
the  latter  appearing  to  be  very  much  tidier  in  his  manners.  Mrs. 
Mendelsohn  feels  quite  proud  of  Rubin's  improvement. 

October  24,  1905 :  Rubin  shows  again  signs  of  stubbornness  and 
disobedience,  particularly  in  the  kindergarten.  I  called  at  the 
kindergarten  last  night  and  asked  the  teacher  to  make  allowances 
for  the  child. 

November  12,  1905:  Child  was  sent  away  from  kindergarten 
for  being  disobedient.  He  seems  to  be  very  nervous,  restless  and 
noisy.  The  physician  examined  the  child,  and  recommends  that 
Rubin  be  sent  to  our  institution  temporarily,  so  that  the  doctor 
could  observe  him  while  he  plays  with  other  children. 

February  18,  1906:  Mr.  Schneider,  of  Kokomo,  Ind.,  applies 
for  the  care  and  maintenance  of  a  little  boy.  Mr.  Schneider 
states  that  he  has  three  children  of  his  own.  His  object  in  ask- 
ing for  a  child  was  purely  charitable  and  in  direct  response  to 
advertisements  and  notices  that  he  had  read.  His  interest  had 
considerably  increased  since  the  Jewish  massacres  in  Russia.  He 
had  decided  to  apply  to  this  institution  for  the  care  and  eventual 
adoption  of  a  little  orphan  boy.  Mr.  Schneider  was  accompanied 
by  his  wife  who  made  a  most  excellent  impression.  Both  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Schneider  were  introduced  to  the  superintendent,  who  en- 
gaged them  in  a  conversation  about  their  motives  in  applying  for 
a  child. 

In  the  course  of  this  investigation  the  following  was  brought 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  87 

out:  Mr.  Schneider  is  a  dry  goods  merchant,  in  partnership 
with  his  father,  and  does  a  very  large  business  in  his  town  in 
Indiana.  He  is  estimated  to  be  worth  $60,000  and  he  figures  his 
income  at  $10,000  per  annum.  Mrs.  Schneider  seems  to  share 
keenly  the  desire  of  Mr.  Schneider  to  adopt  a  little  orphan.  Both 
were  emphatic  in  their  assurances  that  their  treatment  of  the 
child  to  be  adopted  would  in  every  respect  be  as  good  as  that 
extended  to  their  own  children. 

Mr.  Schneider  himself  makes  the  distinct  impression  of  a  gen- 
tleman of  education  and  refinement.  In  the  course  of  conversa- 
tion, he  stated  that  what  he  wanted  was  to  get,  above  all,  a  deserv- 
ing child.  It  was  explained  to  Mr.  Schneider  that  Rubin  had  a 
tendency  to  be  nervous,  restless,  to  be  stubborn  and  to  be  rather 
slovenly.  Mr.  Schneider  seemed  to  have  fallen  in  love  with  the 
boy,  and  stated  that  he  had  seen  a  number  of  children  that  were 
handsomer  than  Rubin,  but  that  he  considered  his  case  as  par- 
ticularly deserving.  He  pleaded  earnestly  that  the  boy  be  placed 
in  his  care. 

February  22,  1906 :  References  furnished  by  applicant  have  re- 
sponded, speaking  highly  both  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Schneider.  Ref- 
erences agree  that  applicant  would  give  child  a  splendid  home. 

February  24,  1906 :  Rubin,  age  6.  a  former  inmate  of  the  Nur- 
sery and  Child's  Hospital,  was  this  day  placed  in  the  care  of  Mr. 
Schneider,  of  Kokomo,  Ind.,  who  promises  to  maintain  and  care 
for  the  child,  free  of  all  charge  to  the  Bureau,  and  who  further 
promises  to  adopt  the  child  after  a  trial  of  one  year. 

February  27,  1906:  KOKOMO,  Ind. 

My  Dear  Friend— Thursday  evening  we  arrived  home  and  the 
folks  received  our  little  Rubin  with  love  and  affection.  My  dear 
wife  and  children  are  more  than  satisfied  with  the  boy,  and  hope 
to  make  a  good  man  out  of  the  waif.  He  is  perfectly  happy  in 
his  new  home,  and  it  is  as  natural  for  him  to  say  mamma  and 
papa  as  if  he  were  born  to  us. 

On  Monday  we  will  take  him  to  the  public  school,  and  in  a  few 
weeks  we  shall  take  pleasure  in  sending  you  his  photo.  As  soon 
as  you  can,  please  send  me  the  photographs  of  the  two  little  boys 


88  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

under  three  years  that  you  spoke  of,  as  it  is  likely  that  I  am  able 
to  place  them  here  in  good  homes  for  adoption. 

April  21.  1906 :  My  Dear  Friend— I  am  pleased  to  say  that 
Rubin  is  all  right.  A  little  headstrong  at  times  and  stubborn, 
but  with  all,  much  better  than  the  average.  He  plays  with  all 
the  neighborhood  children,  and  is  quite  a  favorite  with  them. 
He  speaks  much  more  plainly  than  formerly.  I  am  happy  to  say 
that  his  habits  are  good,  that  he  is  clean,  and  that  we  all  like  him. 

I  will  now  turn  to  the  case  of  Harry. 

October  1,  1905 :  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Solomon  Feldman  apply  for  the 
adoption  of  a  child.  I  visited  their  home.  They  occupy  two 
nice  floors  of  nine  rooms.  They  are  childless  and  have  an  old 
mother  living  with  them.  Mr.  Feldman  is  engaged  in  the  leather 
finding  business,  and  has  a  very  handsome  income.  Both  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Feldman  are  plain  but  bright  people.  They  are  known  in 
the  neighborhood  as  charitable  and  kindhearted.  They  state  that 
their  object  in  applying  for  a  child  is  to  make  it  one  of  their 
own,  as  they  have  been  married  for  fifteen  years,  and  have  given 
up  hope  of  having  children.  On  one  occasion,  they  had  cared 
for  a  nephew  of  theirs,  but  he  died,  at  the  age  of  twenty  years, 
and  from  the  information  received  from  neighbors,  I  gather  that 
the  child  had  been  treated  splendidly  by  them.  All  this  leads  me 
to  believe  that  if  a  baby  were  given  to  them,  they  would  take 
excellent  care  of  it. 

Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Feldman  are  rather  orthodox  religiously. 
They  belong  to  a  synagogue  and  attend  it  regularly.  In  business 
Mr.  Feldman  has  a  fairly  good  standing.  His  capital  and  stock 
are  estimated  to  be  worth  in  the  neighborhood  of  from  $15,000  to 
$18,000. 

October  20,  1905 :  Harry,  age  16  months,  has  been  placed  this 
day  for  eventual  adoption  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Feldman.  This 
child  was  turned  over  to  us  by  the  State  Charities  Aid  Associa- 
tion, the  latter  having  placed  the  baby  boy  with  Mrs.  Minnie  Mc- 
Carthy. 

November  1,  1905 :  Harry  is  doing  splendidly.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Feldman  are  fairly  in  love  with  him.  The  only  thing  that 
troubles  them  is  the  rule  of  our  Bureau  not  to  give  legal  adop- 
tion papers  before  the  end  of  one  year. 


I 

NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  89 

November  7, 1905 :  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Feldman  have  celebrated  most 
elaborately  the  Brith  Milah  of  Harry. 

November  14,  1905 :  Child  is  doing  very  well.  Foster  parents 
are  strongly  attached  to  him. 

February  16,  1906 :  The  following  letter  was  received  from 
Mrs.  McCarthy,  the  former  boarding  mother  of  Harry: 

' '  Miss  W.  told  me  that  perhaps  after  four  or  five  weeks  I  might 
be  able  to  see  Harry,  and  she  also  told  me  to  call  at  the  office  to 
find  out.  But  I  would  rather  you  would  tell  me  in  a  letter,  for 
if  I  must  take  "No"  for  an  answer,  I  would  rather  be  at  home  to 
get  such  an  answer.  Kindly  let  me  know,  and  do  not  think  that 
I  am  too  much  trouble,  for  I  love  the  boy  as  my  own  life.  He 
took  a  great  deal  of  sunshine  out  of  this  home  when  he  went 
away.  It  is  too  bad  we  loved  the  boy  as  we  did.  I  would  never 
love  another  child  as  I  did  Harry.  I  cannot  help  being  good  to 
them  all,  as  they  are  so  helpless.  But  I  will  never  let  my  heart 
go  out  to  any  child  as  I  did  to  the  boy. 

"May  he  always  be  a  good  boy  and  grow  up  to  manhood,  and 
ever  love  and  respect  the  kind  father  and  mother  that  gave  him 
such  a  good  home. ' ' 

THE  COTTAGE  PLAN  IN  GERMAN  AND  ENGLISH  INSTI- 
TUTIONS FOR  CHILDREN. 

RABBI  SIMON  PEISER,  Asst.  Superintendent  of  the  Jewish  Orphan 
Asylum,  Cleveland,  O. 

On  the  second  of  December,  1905,  a  meeting  of  a  special  com- 
mittee of  the  City  Council  of  Berlin,  Germany,  was  held  for  the 
purpose  of  discussing  the  proper  care  of  orphan  children.  The 
members  of  the  committee,  learned  and  professional  men  each  one 
of  them,  decided  after  a  lengthy  discussion  by  a  vote  of  11  to  2 
in  favor  of  the  placing-out  system;  granting,  however,  that  all 
institutional  care  of  orphan  children  could  as  yet  not  be  entirely 
abandoned.  The  two  opposing  votes  were  cast  by  Councilman 
Gombert,  who  having  graduated  from  an  orphan  asylum,  spoke 
loyally  in  its  defence  and  would  not  subscribe  to  the  dictum  that 
" institutionalise!  meant  death  to  individuality,"  and  by  a  Dr. 


90  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

Bernstein  (mark  the  name!)  who  earnestly  insisted  that  children 
received  better  care  and  attention  in  orphan  homes  than  in  fami- 
lies which  in  consideration  of  $25  per  annum  open  their  hearts 
and  houses  to  them.  Dr.  Bernstein's  plea  for  the  retention  and 
modernization  of  orphan  asylums  fell  apparently  upon  unwilling 
ears,  for  the  committee  decided  as  stated  before,  and  reported  its 
decision  to  the  general  council.  And  as  Berlin  then  decided, 
many  cities  had  already  done.  Nine  of  the  leading  German 
cities  have  adopted  the  placing-out  system,  and  have,  at  least 
from  their  viewpoint,  achieved  great  success.  To  this  circum- 
stance must  be  ascribed  the  fact  that  the  cottage  plan  has  not 
found  the  appreciation  and  development  in  Germany  with  which 
it  has  met  in  England.  There  are,  however,  a  few  institutions 
which  have  introduced  the  cottage  or  group  plan  and  of  these  the 
following  deserve  to  be  mentioned : 

1.  "Das  Bauhe  Haus,"  situated  at  Horn  near  Hamburg,  sup- 
ported by  a  religious  order.     This  institution  harbors  twelve  to 
fifteen  boys  in  a  cottage  which  is  in  charge  of  a  "brother"  and 
two  assistants.    The  boys  are  properly  educated  and  receive  also 
industrial  training  which,  however,  according  to  an  American 
authority,  is  rather  superficially  imparted. 

2.  "Das  Johannis-Stif t, "  at  Plotzensee,  near  Berlin,  maintain- 
ed by  the  same  religious  order.   At  this  home  there  are  ten  fami- 
lies of  boys,  each  family  consisting  of  ten  to  fifteen  boys  and  two 
families  of  girls,  a  family  composed  of  ten  or  twelve  girls.   Each 
family  has  its  own  household,  is  provided  with  its  own  play- 
ground and  garden,  and  is  in  every  respect  separate.    The  food 
served  to  the  boys  and  girls  is  prepared  in  the  kitchen  of  the 
"Main  Cottage,"  but  eaten  in  the  cottage  dining  rooms  and  not 
in  one  common  dining  hall. 

3.  "Die  Brandenburgische  Erziehungsanstalt, "  in  Strassburg. 
has  six  divisions  of  boys.    Prom  thirty-five  to  forty  boys  of  dif- 
ferent ages  form  one  division  and  are  in  charge  of  a  caretaker. 
The  four  divisions  of  girls  consist  of  twenty-five  girls  each  and 
are  properly  cared  for  by  women  caretakers.     The  education 
given  is  both  mental  and  industrial. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  91 

The  "Hamburger  Waisenhaus,"  situated  at  Hamburg,  differs 
considerably  from  the  institutions  mentioned  before.  "While  the 
other  homes  limit  their  work  to  the  care  for  and  attention  to  the 
children  given  into  their  charge,  the  Hamburg  Orphan  Asylum 
combines  the  group  plan  with  the  placing-out  system.  It  sup- 
ports 2;979  children,  2,432  boys  and  girls  are  placed  with  fami- 
lies and  547  are  reared  and  educated  in  the  home.  The  institu- 
tion, which  may  look  back  upon  three  centuries  of  work  faithfully 
done,  seems  to  be  superbly  managed  and  deserves  our  most  hearty 
commendation.  It  insists  upon  a  careful  medical  examination 
of  its  prospective  wards,  endeavors  to  learn  the  history  of  each 
child  and  his  parents  as  far  as  possible,  keeps  all  the  data  con- 
nected with  the  child  correctly  recorded  and  has  grouped  and 
housed  its  wards  separately.  There  are  fifteen  groups,  one  con- 
sisting of  infants,  two  of  kindergarten  children,  i.e.,  girls  and 
boys  from  four  to  six  years  of  age,  one  group  of  girls  and  boys 
six  to  eight  years  old  (the  only  institution  in  which  boys  and 
girls  of  such  age  are  permitted  to  remain  together),  three  groups 
of  girls,  each  group  composed  of  the  girls  of  two  school  grades, 
one  group  of  confirmed  girls,  six  groups  of  boys,  each  group  repre- 
senting one  school  grade,  and  one  group  of  boys  who  receive  spe- 
cial educational  attention.  Each  one  of  these  fifteen  groups  has 
its  own  living,  dining  and  sleeping  apartments,  represents  one 
family  and  is  in  charge  of  a  man  or  woman  assistant.  The  for- 
mer is  usually  an  educated  artisan  who  is  required  to  give 
manual  instruction  to  the  boys  of  his  family.  The  educational 
advantages  offered  to  the  children  are  especially  good.  The 
home  school  is  equal  to  any  elementary  school  and  lays  special 
stress  upon  the  study  of  German  and  arithmetic.  There  are  sepa- 
rate classes  for  dullards  and  for  those  children  who  are  mentally 
so  deficient  that  their  progress  can  be  but  very  slow.  Manual 
training  forms  part  of  the  school  curriculum,  and  the  boys  are 
instructed  in  carpentry,  carving,  bookbinding,  brushmaking.  etc., 
and  both  girls  and  boys  devote  some  time  to  garden  work.  The 
occupation  of  the  children  is  varied  as  much  as  possible,  as  is  also 
the  diet.  Four  kinds  of  meals  are  prepared  and  served  respect- 
ively to  the  kindergarten  group,  to  the  sick,  the  well  and  the  con- 
firmed children.  The  Orphan  Asylum  authorities  provide  the 


92  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

graduates  with  positions  and  assist  them  even  after  dismissal 
from  the  home. 

In  England  the  cottage  plan  has  found  a  fuller  and  wider  de- 
velopment and  adoption  than  in  Germany,  and  among  the  many 
institutions  which  are  conducted  according  to  the  cottage  plan 
and  which  have  been  carefully  described  by  J.  S.  Ward,  Jr.  (cf. 
Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  N.  Y.  Juvenile  Asylum,  p.  99.) 
one  especially  deserves  our  careful  consideration,  viz.,  The  Girls 
Village  at  Ilford.  This  home  for  girls  was  founded  by  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo,  the  father  of  "Nobody's  Children,"  who  during  the  forty 
years  of  his  activity  worked  and  provided  for  over  60,000  chil- 
dren, and  is  situated  in  a  most  beautiful  part  of  Essex  county. 
It  houses  1,200  girls  in  nearly  sixty  cottages  and  represents  the 
cottage  plan  at  its  very  best.  The  cottages  are  substantially  built 
and  simply  but  tastefully  decorated.  They  are  as  homelike  as 
any  private  home,  and  are  presided  over  by  a  "mother,"  who,  as 
the  last  report  states,  "is  usually  a  woman  who  has  offered  her- 
self to  our  Lord  in  his  service  among  the  destitute  children. 
These  women,  with  few  exceptions,  neither  ask  nor  receive  any  re- 
muneration and  are  only  accepted  after  having  shown  their  fit- 
ness for  the  position.  The  relation  between  "mother"  and 
orphan  girl  is  that ' '  of  loving  obedience. ' '  The  girls  are  free  and 
unrestrained,  act  naturally  and  are  in  every  respect  like  other 
girls  brought  up  by  their  parents.  In  addition  to  a  good  mental 
education,  they  also  receive  a  splendid  industrial  training  in 
housework,  laundry  work,  dressmaking,  cream  and  cheese  making, 
weaving  and  art  needlework.  The  industrial  principle  which  has 
always  been  emphasized  by  the  late  Dr.  Barnardo,  is  especially 
noticeable  at  Ilford.  Every  girl  is  taught  to  work  and  given 
some  work  to  do.  Each  one  is  treated  as  an  individual  with  per- 
sonal characteristics  of  her  own  and  is  dealt  with  what  might  be 
reasonable  to  expect  from  each  of  them.  It  surprises,  therefore, 
no  one  to  learn  that  Dr.  Barnardo 's  girls  are  in  great  demand  and 
that  upon  leaving  the  beautiful  home  each  girl  finds  a  good,  well- 
salaried  position.  Dr.  Barnardo  ascribed  the  success  with  which 
his  work  at  Ilford  has  been  crowned,  to  the  change  from  the  bar- 
rack to  cottage  plan  and  is  outspokenly  in  favor  of  the  latter. 
While  there  are  but  few  nowadays  who  deny  the  justice  of  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  93 

claims  made  for  the  cottage  plan  by  its  advocates,  yet  we  cannot 
conclude  this -brief  account  without  merely  hinting  at  two  great 
difficulties,  which  the  cottage  plan  offers  in  America,  viz.,  the 
securing  of  a  larger  number  of  good,  fit  assistants  and  the  in- 
creased expenditure.  These  difficulties  present  a  serious  prob- 
lem which,  no  doubt,  will  in  good  time  find  a  proper  solution. 

Let  us  hope  that  ere  long  well-trained  and  well-educated  men 
and  women  will  devote  their  energies  to  the  rearing  of  orphan 
children  and  that  our  co-religionists  will  become  more  and  more- 
alive  to  the  necessity  of  generously  discharging  their  debt  to  chil- 
dren bereaved  of  fathers  and  mothers,  so  that  all  Jewish  institu- 
tions for  children  will  find  it  soon  possible  to  introduce  the  cot- 
tage plan. 

DISCUSSION  OF  "THE  COTTAGE  PLAN  FROM  THE 
ARCHITECTURAL  POINT  OF  VIEW." 

CHARLES  H.   ISRAELS,  NEW  YORK. 

The  architectural  problem  of  the  Cottage  Institution  is  the 
problem  of  the  city  in  miniature.  All  of  the  principles  which 
apply  to  the  proper  planning  of  larger  centers  of  population,  ap- 
ply equally  to  their  smaller  prototypes.  For  the  past  ten  years 
there  has  been  a  wave  of  discussion  in  both  the  lay  and  the  tech- 
nical press  as  well  as  in  the  professional  societies  as  to  the  proper 
architectural  solution  of  the  city  plan.  This  discussion  is  the 
result  of  economic  necessity;  but  it  is  demanded  that  the  archi- 
tect's answer  must  do  more  than  simply  meet  this  necessity — it 
must  be  artistically  satisfying  as  well. 

The  problem  of  the  city  plan  has  gone  beyond  the  realm  of 
academic  discussion  and  certain  basic  principles  arrived  at  by  all 
of  the  experts  are  being  incorporated  in  the  improvements  now 
under  way  or  in  contemplation,  in  New  York,  Washington,  Cleve- 
land, Buffalo,  Baltimore  and  San  Francisco.  The  principles  are : 
That  the  plan  should  be  of  such  a  character  that  it  may  be  devel- 
oped in  any  direction  indefinitely  along  the  main  lines  of  travel. 
That  civic  or  public  centers  should  be  created ;  thereby  co-ordinat- 
ing the  public  offices  and  providing  the  opportunity  for  a  consist- 
ent architectural  treatment  of  the  more  important  structures. 


94  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

That  congestion  is  best  avoided  by  easy  and  rapid  circulation. 
That  small  buildings  are  only  possible  where  there  is  no  con- 
gestion, and  that  these  principles  may  be  best  served  by  a  de- 
parture from  the  rectangular  plan,  so  common  to  American 
communities,  and  the  adoption  of  a  system  of  diagonal  and  radi- 
ating roadways  with  the  result  of  making  possible  easy  and  rapid 
circulation,  while  at  the  same  time  providing  isolated  sites  for 
structures  of  various  types,  preventing  congestion  and  giving 
artistically  satisfying  vistas. 

Each  of  these  principles  applies  with  equal  force  to  the  cottage 
community,  and  it  is  fortunate  that  the  impetus  toward  the 
building  of  such  institutions  comes  at  a  time  when  this  discussion 
has  reached  a  point  where  all  of  the  men  who  have  studied  the 
problem  agree  as  to  these  basic  principles. 

The  designer  of  an  institution  has  one  all  important  advantage 
that  does  not  often  come  to  the  worker  for  city  improvements. 
The  institution  is  usually  planned  as  a  reasonably  consistent 
whole  from  the  beginning.  The  planning  of  a  city  is  usually  the 
result  of  chance,  and  until  it  actually  becomes  an  important  cen- 
ter of  population,  the  wastefulness  of  a  haphazard  method  does 
not  impress  itself  upon  the  people,  and  the  correction  of  basic 
errors  can  then  only  be  obtained  at  an  enormous  cost  except  when 
such  catastrophes  as  those  of  Baltimore  and  San  Francisco  help 
to  simplify  the  problem. 

Accepting  the  three  principles  mentioned  as  axiomatic,  let  us 
see  how  they  apply  to  institutional  work  on  the  cottage  system. 

Pew  institutions  know  at  their  inception  exactly  the  form  of 
work  which  they  will  be  called  upon  to  perform  in  all  its  details. 
The  Boys'  Industrial  School,  at  Lancaster,  Ohio,  one  of  the  oldest 
segregate  institutions  in  this  country,  has  been  in  process  of  alter- 
ation and  expansion  for  many  years  in  order  to  meet  the  latest 
expert  opinion. 

Even  if  an  industrial  programme  is  prepared  with  the  utmost 
minuteness,  experience  and  changed  conditions  may  cause  the 
work  to  be  radically  changed  in  the  future  and  the  plan  of  the 
institution  should  be  elastic  enough  to  meet  the  new  demands. 

Two  of  the  most  successful  cottage  colonies  in  the  East,  such  as 
the  Good  Will  Farm  at  Hinckley,  Maine,  and  the  new  State  In- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  95 

dustrial  School  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.  (now  under  construction), 
go  to  the  extreme  of  segregation  and  are  primarily  agricul- 
tural institutions  with  large  tracts  of  territory  in  which  formality 
of  plan  is  purposely  not  considered;  as  their  very  segregation 
allows  for  expansion  at  will. 

The  New  York  Orphan  Asylum,  at  Hastings-on-Hudson,  and 
the  Juvenile  Asylum  at  Dobbs  Ferry  (now  partially  completed), 
are,  in  my  opinion,  defective  in  this  particular,  as  their  architec- 
tural schemes  around  one  central  court  leave  no  room  for  future 
development  along  consistent  architectural  lines ;  and  if  the  next 
decade  should  bring  about  as  radical  changes  in  the  conduct  of 
such  colonies  as  has  been  the  case  during  the  past  few  years,  the 
time  may  come  when  these  institutions,  at  present  models  of  their 
types,  will  find  their  very  completeness  a  barrier  in  the  way  of 
the  development  necessary  to  keep  them  abreast  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced ideas. 

Granted  that  this  feature  should  be  the  primary  consideration, 
it  is  self-evident  that  a  cottage  institution  should  be  planned 
with  special  reference  to  the  following  propositions : 

First.— That  the  general  scheme  should  be  so  planned  with 
reference  to  the  topography  of  the  site  that  its  future  develop- 
ment may  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  institution  upon  both 
the  main  and  subordinate  axial  lines  in  any  direction. 

Second.— That  all  axial  lines  should  be  so  adjusted  as  to  give 
the  greatest  economy  of  circulation  consistent  with  the  segrega- 
tion of  the  various  classes  of  inmates  and  the  ease  of  circulation 
from  all  points  to  the  buildings  used  for  congregate  purposes. 

Third.— That  the  various  buildings  should  be  disposed  with 
proper  consideration  for  the  peculiarities  of  the  site,  their  segre- 
gation, their  architectural  importance,  their  particular  relations 
to  the  other  buildings  of  the  group,  and  the  questions  of  water, 
heat  supply,  and  sewerage  disposal. 

Fourth. —  That  the  individual  buildings  should  be  planned  with 
single  eye  to  economy  of  maintenance  except  in  the  case  of  the 
cottages;  where  the  consideration  of  homelike  surroundings  for 
which  the  cottage  system  stands  should  be  given  equal  import- 
ance. 


96  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

The  experience  of  cities  has  proved  that  the  plan  which  best 
meets  these  conditions  is  a  system  of  rectangular,  diagonal  and 
radiating  roads  and  paths  forming  a  series  of  definitely  bounded 
sites  thereby  providing  the  isolation  so  necessary  for  the  various 
groups— the  main  buildings  and  those  for  co-ordinate  work  being 
in  the  middle  of  the  composition  and  forming  practically  a  civio 
center  from  which  the  main  roads  radiate  while  the  subordinate 
groups  are  placed  at  the  points  of  secondary  importance  formed 
by  the  intersection  of  the  radiating  roads.  This  scheme  allows 
for  the  extension  of  the  main  or  secondary  roads  in  any  direc- 
tion; and  these  extensions  provide  numerous  logical  sites  for 
farm  buildings,  work  shops  or  any  other  structures  at  a  greater 
distance  from  the  main  buildings  as  the  demands  of  the  institu- 
tion may  dictate  in  the  future ;  while  they  would  be  at  the  same 
time  in  the  most  direct  communication  with  the  center  of  the 
composition.  With  each  short  extension  of  the  roads  a  new  site 
is  provided  and  these  sites  are  always  in  their  proper  relation 
both  architecturally  and  economically  to  the  primary  group. 
The  intersection  of  the  cross  roads  also  provides  a  natural  point 
for  lamps  or  other  embellishments  which  may  be  added  at  any 
time. 

The  movement  for  municipal  improvement  now  sweeping  over 
the  United  States  is  hampered  in  almost  every  instance  by  the 
difficulties  of  circulation  in  cities  laid  out  upon  a  rectangular 
plan  in  which  access  to  important  centers  is  never  direct,  with 
consequent  congestion,  long  travel  and  loss  of  vistas.  The  only 
American  city  which  has  avoided  these  defects  is  the  City  of 
Washington,  in  which  diagonal  circulation  was  originally  pro- 
vided, which  not  only  gave  the  desired  results,  but  has  also  made 
possible  the  contemplated  improvements  recently  adopted  by  the 
Government  upon  lines  which  are  logically  developed  from  the 
existing  plan. 

The  same  principles  apply  to  this  miniature  city ;  as  by  means 
of  the  diagonal  and  radiating  streets,  immediate  straight,  short 
and  uninterrupted  access  is  possible  from  all  subordinate  build- 
ings to  the  main  group,  and  from  one  group  to  the  other,  while  at 
the  same  time  providing  individual  spaces  for  the  various  build- 
ings suited  to  both  large  and  small  structures,  enclosed  within 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  97 

plots  with  actual  boundaries  which  confine  a  greater  area  than  is 
possible  within  any  other  geoinetrical  form,  thereby  reducing 
the  actual  length  of  travel  to  the  absolute  minimum  consistent 
with  the  space  enclosed. 

Having  determined  upon  a  plan  of  this  general  character,  the 
various  buildings  of  this  miniature  village  may  be  easily  plotted 
in  the  numerous  symmetrical  and  isolated  sites  which  the  system 
provides. 

The  main  buildings  for  co-ordinate  and  administrative  work 
naturally  group  themselves  in  the  center  of  the  composition, 
equidistant  from  the  minor  buildings,  with  the  Superintendent's 
house  and  such  buildings  as  the  Honor  Cottage  in  prominent 
locations  on  primary  lines  of  travel — one  for  purposes  of  utility, 
the  other  to  emphasize  its  architectural  importance.  Grouped 
around  a  secondary  center,  outside  of  the  main  composition,  and 
dependent  for  position  on  the  topography  of  the  site,  the  work- 
shops and  other  industrial  buildings  should  find  a  place ;  and  in 
grouping  the  cottages,  those  intended  for  the  class  of  inmates  who 
are  to  use  the  industrial  buildings  should  be  kept  nearest  to 
their  work. 

The  buildings  forming  the  main  co-ordinate  group  may  in  this 
form  of  plan  be  entirely  surrounded  by  smaller  groups  of  cot- 
tages in  such  a  way  that  the  several  groups  for  the  various 
classes  of  inmates  may  be  kept  separate  and  distinct  one  from 
the  other.  The  Reception  Cottage  and  the  Hospital  must 
naturally  be  placed  outside  of  the  main  composition;  the  one 
near  the  entrance  and  the  other  in  some  isolated  location;  but 
the  radiating  system  will  always  keep  them  on  a  main  line  of 
travel. 

The  character  of  the  buildings  required  for  a  cottage  insti- 
tution must  be  dictated  by  the  industrial  necessities  of  each 
particular  ease.  The  theory  of  the  cottage  institution  demands 
isolation  and  segregation.  The  greater  the  segregation,  the  more 
successfully  the  plan  is  apt  to  meet  the  most  advanced  demands 
of  the  cottage  institution,  but  the  greater  the  cost  of  mainten- 
ance; and  it  therefore  becomes  of  paramount  importance  that 
at  the  inception  of  the  work  the  officers  of  the  institution  should 
decide  for  the  architect's  guidance,  if  each  cottage  is  to  have  its 


98  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

own  household  economy  or  if  there  is  to  be  a  congregate  dining 
room,  and  whether  the  cottages  shall  have  separate  rooms  or 
dormitories. 

Of  the  buildings  themselves,  the  only  one  presenting  problems 
peculiar  to  the  segregate  institution,  is  the  cottage  itself.  Except 
in  an  Honor  Cottage,  the  experts  generally  agree  that  in  most 
institutions  separate  rooms  are  inadvisable.  The  consensus  of 
opinion  seems  to  place  20  to  30  inmates  as  the  proper  number 
which  it  is  possible  to  care  for  adequately  under  one  roof.  If  the 
appropriation  permits  the  buildings  should  be  fireproof;  but  if 
economy  declares  otherwise  at  least  the  stairs  and  halls  should 
be  so  constructed  and  should  be  placed  in  a  central  location 
equidistant  from  all  sleeping  apartments. 

Two  dormitories  should  be  provided  on  the  second  floor  with 
adjoining  locker  rooms  through  which  the  toilet  and  wash  room 
is  entered;  one  such  room  answering  for  the  two  dormitories. 
Opposite  the  stairway  on  the  sleeping  floor  and  in  such  a  posi- 
tion as  to  command  the  dormitories  the  designer  should  place 
the  rooms  of  the  person  in  charge  of  the  cottage,  and  it  is  also 
advisable  that  the  toilet  rooms  be  entered  from  the  halls  as  well 
as  from  the  locker  rooms. 

Large  storage  spaces  are  essential  and  a  sewing  room  is  usually 
advisable.  In  planning  the  first  floor  of  the  cottage,  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  be  as  uninstitutional  as  possible ;  as  no  peculiar 
problems  are  presented  other  than  may  be  found  in  any  large 
home.  The  details,  of  course,  depend  upon  the  amount  of  segre- 
gation which  each  case  demands. 

The  cost  of  each  cottage  providing  from  20  to  30  beds  would  be 
from  $10.000  to  $15.000  each,  dependent  upon  the  methods  of  con- 
struction. No  very  complete  statistics  have  been  collated  as  yet 
as  to  the  average  cost  of  the  cottage  institution  as  a  whole;  but 
in  a  recent  address  of  Dr.  Hastings  H.  Hart,  he  stated  that  "an 
adequate  plant  for  a  Juvenile  Reformatory  (on  the  cottage  sys- 
tem) can  be  built  and  equipped  for  from  $600  to  $1,000  per  bed, 
including  land."  I  am  inclined  to  think,  however,  that  while 
these  figures  may  be  correct  for  the  west  they  would  be  found 
considerably  higher  in  the  eastern  states. 

Further  segregation  than  even  the  cottage  affords,  is  obtained 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  99 

in  the  Girls'  Training  School  at  Geneva,  Illinois,  by  the  housing 
of  small  families  in  separate  flats,  each  household  having  its 
complete  family  life  within  its  own  apartment. 

In  determining  upon  the  details  of  the  buildings  of  the  group 
other  than  the  cottages,  the  more  the  architect  can  forget  that  he 
is  designing  an  institution  and  the  more  he  can  consider  his 
problem  one  of  an  industrial  village,  the  more  successful  he  is 
apt  to  be  in  solving  the  problem  and  meeting  the  conditions 
for  which  the  cottage  institution  stands. 

Considerations  of  construction,  sanitation,  water  supply,  heat- 
ino;  and  lighting  service,  and  the  numerous  other  problems  which 
confront  the  city  builder  all  have  the  same  relative  importance 
in  the  institution  and  call  for  solution  upon  a  smaller  scale  in  a 
similar  way. 

The  more  the  architect  has  the  miniature  city  before  him,  the 
greater  will  be  his  success.  Architecture  is  the  servant  of  OUT 
industrial  and  economic  conditions.  It  is  successful  only  when 
it  meets  the  demands  of  the  time,  and  meets  them  artistically 
and  economically. 

Environment  creates  types  of  buildings  as  well  as  people.  New 
York's  tenement  and  skyscraper  problems  are  both  the  result  of 
environment— of  city  plan.  The  Parisian  apartment  is  the  result 
of  that  city's  broad  streets  and  well-planned  avenues,  and  so 
the  buildings  of  an  institution  will  respond  under  the  hand  of 
the  skilful  architect  to  the  well-considered  and  economic  plan 
of  the  miniature  city.  It  is  a  new  problem  in  modern  sociology— 
it  must  be  met  in  the  new  way. 

JEWISH  FOSTER  HOME  AND  ORPHAN  ASYLUM,  2  p.  M.. 
May  7.  1906. 

JEWISH  DELINQUENT  CHILDREN. 

FALK  YOUNKER,  Secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Hebrew 
Association,  New  York  City. 

The  large  number  of  Jewish  delinquent  children  to  care  for  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  involves  many  problems,  all  of  which  must 
be  carefully  considered,  if  their  number  is  to  be  materially  re- 
duced. If  we  consider  conditions  in  the  metropolis  that  we  have 


100  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

to  contend  with,  it  will  not  be  surprising  to  learn  that  the  number 
has  grown  to  such  large  proportions. 

Between  28  and  30  per  cent,  of  all  children  brought  to  the 
Children's  Court  are  Jewish  children.  There  are  three  and  a 
half  times  as  many  children  among  this  number  who  are  the 
children  of  recently  arrived  immigrants  as  there  are  of  native 
born  parents. 

Fifteen  years  ago  Jewish  prisoners  were  an  unknown  quantity. 

Let  us  briefly  consider  conditions  in  the  metropolis.  It  is  con- 
servatively estimated  that  the  Jewish  population  of  New  York  is 
700,000.  Upon  investigation  we  find  that  in  the  Ghetto,  families 
are  huddled  together,  and  when  we  reflect  that  in  a  few  dingy 
rooms  large  families  live  and  frequently  several  boarders  be- 
sides, does  it  need  any  further  argument  to  convince  us  that  the 
home  life  is  unbearable  for  the  children,  disease  must  thrive  and 
that  immorality  has  a  breeding  place  amid  such  wretched  sur- 
roundings. "We  must  get  at  the  root  of  an  evil,  if  we  wish  to  effect 
a  positive  cure,  and  the  root  of  the  evil  is  here. 

"We  of  course  recognize  the  fact  that  all  large  cities  have  the 
problem  of  how  to  deal  with  their  poor.  We  know  that  we  can- 
not wipe  out  poverty  and  sin.  We  are  interested  in  trying  to 
learn  what  we  can  do  to  reduce  suffering  and  wretchedness,  and 
to  improve  conditions  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  life  worth 
living  for  all  those  whom  we  possibly  can  reach. 

Here  is  an  opportunity  for  our  great  philanthropists  to  do 
noble  work.  Homes  should  be  erected  for  these  people,  where 
they  can  live  decently  at  a  minimum  cost,  but  should  not  be 
known  as  philanthropic  enterprises  which  would  wound  the 
pride  of  the  worthy  poor,  but  there  should  be  groups  of  such 
buildings  in  certain  localities  and  have  it  generally  known  that 
here  self-respecting  families  could  find  neat  apartments  amid 
sanitary  and  inviting  surroundings. 

E.  R.  L.  Gould  and  Robert  Fulton  Cutting  are  at  the  head  of 
a  movement  that  houses  people  in  cities  and  suburban  homes,  in 
which  it  is  claimed  that  out  of  several  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars collected  in  rents  last  year,  less  than  .$10*0  was  lost  in  col- 
lections, which  proves  that  the  example  of  a  well  regulated  apart- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  101 

ments  conducted  by  a  responsible  superintendent  and  a  compe- 
tent janitor  has  the  desired  result. 

It  is  needless  to  state  that  such  improved  conditions  as  out- 
lined would  have  the  most  beneficial  effect  upon  the  lives  of  our 
Jewish  youth.  We  hear  of  magnificent  apartments  in  fashionable 
sections  of  the  city,  which  contain  spacious  and  elaborate  halls, 
where  receptions  and  various  social  functions  may  be  held. 
"Would  it  not  be  a  grand  thing  if  such  homes  as  I  have  just  de- 
scribed for  our  worthy  poor,  would  also  contain  a  hall  where 
they  could  have  their  neighborhood  gatherings,  entertainments 
and  receptions,  and  other  innocent  amusements  which  would 
bring  so  much  happiness  and  good  cheer  into  their  lives  of  toil 
and  hardship. 

The  New  York  Truant  School  contains  a  large  number  of  Jew- 
ish children.  The  number  varies,  but  a  general  average  would 
be  about  35  per  cent,  of  the  total  number.  The  principal  of  this 
school  informs  me  that  she  considers  the  ignorance  of  the  parents 
responsible  for  a  large  number  of  the  children  committed  to  the 
school,  many  of  whom  seem  to  be  totally  ignorant  of  the  school 
laws.  They  send  the  children  out  to  sell  papers,  shine  shoes  and 
peddle,  when  the  father  or  the  bread  winner  of  the  family  is  out 
of  work,  and  such  children  are  compelled  to  fall  in  line  and  thus 
help  to  support  the  family. 

Mothers'  meetings  would  help  to  offset  this  problem.  Such 
parents  ought  to  be  made  to  realize  that  a  great  injustice  is  done 
to  the  child  who  does  not  receive  the  necessary  education  to  have 
a  fair  start  in  life. 

In  Harlem  in  the  vicinity  of  115th  street,  between  Fifth  and 
Madison  avenues,  and  several  of  the  adjoining  streets  where  there 
are  a  large  number  of  cheap  tenements,  a  condition  of  affairs 
exists  almost  as  bad  as  in  some  of  the  worst  sections  of  the  lower 
East  Side. 

In  investigating  several  probation  cases,  I  found  it  necessary 
to  visit  a  school  in  the  neighborhood,  one  of  recent  and  modern 
construction,  and  also  one  of  the  largest  in  the  city.  The  teacher 
of  one  of  the  boys  suggested  that  I  meet  the  principal,  and  ob- 
tain further  information  regarding  conditions  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. I  was  accordingly  introduced  to  the  head  of  the  school. 


102  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

who  informed  me  that  it  was  a  source  of  great  anxiety  to  him  that 
so  many  of  the  children  of  his  school  were  delinquent,  and  that 
he  had  given  some  thought  to  this  important  problem.  The  per- 
centage of  Jewish  children  in  this  school  is  nearly  80  per  cent. ; 
those  who  were  delinquent  were  nearly  all  Jewish.  The  principal 
stated  his  belief  that  a  great  deal  of  the  trouble  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  parents  of  these  children  have  a  great  struggle  to  earn  a 
livelihood.  They  are  at  work  practically  all  day  long,  and  the 
task  of  preparing  meals,  besides  taking  care  or  the  house,  is  usu- 
ally left  to  one  of  the  older  children  of  the  family.  The  children 
are  on  the  streets  nearly  all  day  long,  finding  nothing  to  attract 
them  in  their  dingy  homes,  and  in  the  streets  mam7  bad  habits 
art1  formed.  The  temptations  of  the  penny  theatres  are  very  al- 
luring, and  many  of  the  attractions  there  poison  their  minds  and 
characters.  There  are  also  the  5-cent  theatres  and  other  low  class 
theatres,  as  well  as  degrading  museums.  The  children  having 
nothing  at  home  to  amuse  or  entertain  them,  crave  for  these 
pleasures,  and  in  order  to  obtain  them,  begin  by  taking  little 
change  left  on  the  mantel  piece  at  home  and  then  resort  to  petty 
stealing,  which  gradually  leads  to  greater  wrong-doing. 

I  visited  several  of  the  five-cent  theatres  recently,  and  can  best 
describe  them  by  stating  that  they  are  the  dime  novel  of  the 
stage,  they  consist  of  moving  pictures  which  appeal  to  the  vicious 
side  of  life,  give  an  entirely  erroneous  idea  of  true  manhood. 
and  are  demoralizing  in  every  respect. 

The  principal  also  said  to  me,  "Would  it  not  be  a  fine  thing 
if  your  philanthropic  and  educational  institutions  would  enter 
into  competition  with  these  low  class  attractions,  and  offer  amuse- 
ment that  develops  the  better  side  of  children's  characters  and 
appeals  to  their  nobler  instincts?"  He  also  suggested  "That 
we  ought  to  gradually  weed  out  such  resorts  by  making  a  very 
slight  charge  for  our  attractions  and  also  send  free  tickets  to 
the  public  schools  to  be  distributed  among  the  best  children  as  a 
reward  for  punctuality  and  good  behavior." 

I  am  also  informed  that  there  are  a  number  of  little  cigar  shops 
and  candy  stores  in  the  neighborhood  where  boys  are  permitted 
to  lounge  and  smoke  cigarettes  and  cultivate  the  habits  of  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  103 

corner  loafer.    If  these  resorts  could  only  be  broken  up,  it  would 
be  a  great  thing  for  the  future  of  our  boys. 

The  religious  training  of  the  children  of  immigrant  parents  N 
also  sadly  neglected.  Unfortunately  among  nearly  all  the  parents 
of  these  children  their  religion  is  to  a  large  extent  based  upon 
superstition  and  ignorance,  principally  due  to  persecution,  and 
counts  for  little,  if  anything,  as  a  moral  factor  in  their  lives. 
They  worship  the  letter  of  the  religious  law  but  ignore  the  spirit. 
Our  great  Washington  said:  "Let  us  with  caution  indulge  the 
supposition  that  morality  can  be  maintained  without  religion." 
It  remains  for  our  educational  and  philanthropic  institutions  to 
step  in  and  teach  religion  as  it  should  be  taught,  and  by  this  I  do 
not  mean  orthodoxy  or  reform,  but  I  mean  the  fundamental 
principles  of  our  sacred  faith,  which  is  the  essence  of  all  true 
religion,  and  which  teaches  us  that  it  is  impossible  to  be  truly 
religious  unless  religion  is  brought  into  the  daily  life  by  cor- 
rect conduct  and  strict,  adherence  to  truth  and  honor.  If  we  are 
tactful,  this  can  be  taught  without  estranging  the  child  from  the 
parent,  which  we  all  know  must  be  avoided.  In  order  to  do  this 
let  us  always  confine  ourselves  to  these  fundamental  principles, 
and  the  children  should  be  made  to  realize  that  the  ritual  and 
ceremonial  part  is  not  of  paramount  importance,  but  that  we  must 
abide  by  the  wishes  of  our  parents  or  those  nearest  to  us  in  ref- 
erence to  these  details.  My  experience  has  taught  me  that  what 
is  sadly  needed  is  the  trained  social  worker.  Let  us  not  be 
carried  away  with  the  thought  that  college  degrees  are  all  that  is 
necessary  to  fit  one  for  this  important  problem.  Emerson  said: 
"Wealth  without  a  good  heart  is  like  an  ugly  beggar."  I  should 
apply  this  to  the  social  worker.  Wealth  of  knowledge  without 
heart  and  sympathy  for  the  work  will  never  fit  anyone  for  social 
leadership.  The  problem  before  us  is  an  enormous  one.  "Let 
us  be  strong  and  of  good  courage,"  and  let  our  high-minded  men 
and  women  go  into  this  work  with  the  thought  that  effective  results 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  meeting  our  unfortunate  brethren 
upon  their  own  level.  We  must  learn  to  be  patient  with  them  and 
realize  that  we  would  not  be  any  better  were  we  born  in  a  coun- 
try where  bigotry  and  superstition  reign  supreme.  We  also  need 
a  campaign  of  education.  Our  people  must  be  made  to  realize 


104  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

that  charity  of  the  heart  must  be  combined  with  charity  of  the 
mind,  and  that  helping  others  to  help  themselves  is  the  highest, 
best  and  most  practical  form  of  charity.  After  considerable 
agitation  the  Jewish  Protectory  has  now  become  a  reality.  The 
Jewish  press  stated  recently  that  $500,000  has  been  raised  for 
this  purpose,  and  that  the  work  of  construction  would  be  pushed 
forward  to  completion.  The  establishment  of  this  institution  was 
made  absolutely  necessary  owing  to  the  large  number  of  Jewish 
children  being  committed  to  Catholic  institutions  and  those  of 
other  denominations.  Is  it  not  timely  to  ask  ourselves  this  ques- 
tion: What  will  be  the  condition  of  affairs  after  its  doors  are 
thrown  open?  Will  it  find  that  its  capacity  is  soon  taxed  to  the 
limit,  as  many  of  our  institutions  discovered  soon  after  entering 
commodious  homes  ?  Should  we  not  realize  that  prevention  is  bet- 
ter than  cure,  and  does  it  not  behoove  us  to  support  philanthropic 
and  educational  endeavor,  and  how  shall  it  be  done?  By  organ- 
izing new  societies  ?  Decidedly  no.  Our  leading  educational  and 
philanthropic  institutions  are  having  a  great  struggle  to  further 
their  work,  and  therefore  the  formation  of  new  societies  must  be 
completely  discouraged.  If  we  are  to  deal  with  the  problem  in- 
telligently we  must  give  all  possible  assistance  and  encouragement 
to  the  leaders  of  our  recognized  institutions.  Their  work  must 
expand  if  existing  conditions  are  to  be  improved.  If  they  can 
arrange  to  combine  in  doing  this  work,  so  much  the  better,  but 
if  not  they  should  at  least  confer  and  divide  up  the  work  intelli- 
gently among  themselves.  Recreation  centers  must  be  established 
wherever  most  needed,  and  here  our  Jewish  youth  must  find 
healthy  amusement  to  offset  the  temptations  of  the  street  and  at 
such  centers  moral  and  religious  influence  must  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  them.  It  is  only  by  such  endeavor  and  better  home 
environment,  as  outlined  at  the  start,  that  we  can  prevent  our 
youth  from  becoming  sick  mentally  and  physically,  chronic  bur- 
dens to  the  community  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  lessons  of  in- 
dustry, ambition  and  self-reliance  were  lacking.  We  can  also 
prevent  them  becoming  aged  in  their  youth  by  putting  a  check 
upon  the  tendency  to  lead  wayward  lives.  We  can  likewise  avoid 
their  becoming  infirm  and  crippled  morally  by  teaching  princi- 
ples of  integrity  and  honor,  and  last,  but  not  least,  we  shall  pre- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  105 

vent  them  being  ob.jects  of  charity  by  teaching  that  pride  and 
self-respect  should  be  held  in  highest  esteem,  and  that  when  we 
part  with  these  we  part  with  our  most  sacred  possession. 

Let  us  have  stout  hearts  for  the  undertaking  before  us.  and 
when  we  feel  that  we  need  inspiration  let  us  go  to  some  poor 
neighborhood,  stop  at  the  street  corner  and  listen  to  the  Salvation 
Army.  These  men  and  women  are  there  every  evening,  no  matter 
how  inclement  the  weather  may  be.  They  are  the  brave  soldiers  of 
a  mighty  army  which  has  never  met  with  defeat,  for  they  are 
fighting  ignorance,  poverty  and  crime  with  God's  messages  of 
sympathy,  love,  comfort  and  forgiveness.  Heaven  smiles  upon 
their  work,  for  the  most  noble  of  all  charities  is  that  which  tries 
to  lead  into  the  right  path  the  wayward  and  the  erring. 

We  of  the  Jewish  faith  can  well  afford  to  profit  by  their  ex- 
ample, and  we  ought  to  do  similar  work  among  those  of  our  own 
people  who  need  just  such  help  and  guidance. 

HOMES  FOR  WORKING  GIRLS. 

Miss  ROSE  SOMMERFELD,  Superintendent  of  the  Clara  de  Hirsch 
Home,  New  York  City. 

Recently  a  book  was  published  in  New  York,  entitled,  ''The 
Long  Day.  or  the  Story  of  a  New  York  Working  Girl  as  told  by 
herself, ' '  in  which  the  writer  very  vividly  depicts  the  intolerable 
conditions  under  which  most  girls  who  drift  to  large  cities  seek- 
ing work  are  compelled  to  live.  Since  the  publication  of  that 
book  public  opinion  has  been  stirred  to  its  greatest  depths  and 
thinking  men  and  women  have  begun  to  realize  that  while  they 
have  done  much  for  working  girls  in  the  way  of  clubs,  classes, 
etc.,  they  have  failed  to  get  at  the  root  of  the  trouble,  which  is 
the  proper  housing  of  the  girl.  Although  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  homes  for  working  girls  are  needed  in  all  large  cities,  it  is 
probably  in  New  York  where  thousands  come  yearly  to  seek  work 
that  the  problem  of  providing  the  proper  accommodations  will  lie 
most  difficult.  In  smaller  cities  rents  are  less  expensive,  the  cost 
of  living  is  not  so  great,  and  consequently  there  is  very  little 
difficulty  in  making  such  homes  self-supporting  after  they  have 


106  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

once  been  organized.  In  New  York  conditions  are  entirely 
different,  and,  therefore,  it  will  be  interesting  to  watch  the  experi" 
ments  that  are  to  be  made.  Though  this  question  has  been 
agitated  recently,  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  years 
ago  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  connection  with  its  work  established  homes 
for  working  girls,  but,  unfortunately,  they  were  based  upou 
such  narrow  sectarian  lines  that  those  of  other  faiths  than 
Protestantism  were  not  as  a  rule  admitted.  Miss  Richardson,  in 
her  book  ' '  The  Long  Day, ' '  deplores  the  fact  that  religion  should 
have  anything  to  do  with  the  homes  as  such,  and  in  describing 
what  she  considers  the  ideal  home,  strikes  the  proper  keynote 
when  she  says  "homes  for  working  girls  should  not  only  'be 
non-sectarian,  but  non-religious."  As  the  homes  conducted  by 
the  Y.  "W.  C.  A.  were  not  able  to  accommodate  all  who  applied, 
homes  of ,  all  descriptions  have  been  organized  in  many  cities 
through  the  efforts  of  private  individuals,  and  while  many  of 
these  homes  are  doing  good  work,  they  are  so  hedged  in  by  rules 
and  regulations  that  the  great  majority  of  those  for  whom  they 
are  primarily  needed,  fight  shy  of  them.  "Why  should  we  attempt 
to  force  upon  the  working  girl  those  things  that  would  not  be 
acceptable  to  us?  Which  of  us  stopping  at  the  Waldorf-Astoria, 
the  Walton,  or  even  a  boarding  house  would  like  to  be  compelled 
to  attend  religious  services  morning  and  evening?  The  working 
girl  who  pays  $3.00  per  week  for  room  and  board  feels  just  as 
independent  as  the  woman  who  goes  to  a  hotel  and  pays  that 
much  per  day,  and  she  does  not  care  to  be  coerced  into  doing 
anything.  It  is  true  every  hotel  has  its  rules  and  so  must  work- 
ing girls'  homes,  but  these  must  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and 
must  not  interfere  with  the  personal  liberty  of  the  girl.  The 
great  difficulty  to  my  mind  has  been  that  the  homes  started  by 
individuals  have,  as  a  rule,  been  in  charge  of  women  totally  unfit 
for  the  position  they  hold.  With  few  exceptions  the  women  art1 
of  the  working  housekeeper  type,  or  have  been  selected  because 
they  are  ' '  consecrated, ' '  as  one  directress  told  me,  and  ' '  therefore 
require  very  little  salary" — an  important  consideration,  no 
doubt,  as  most  of  the  homes  lead  a  hand  to  mouth  existence,  and 
have  barely  enough  to  meet  their  expenses  even  when  subsidized 
by  a -board  of  managers.  As  a  result,  the  home  lacks  atmosphere. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  107 

the  girls  have  no  ambition,  and  very  soon  lose  their  ideals  if  they 
ever  had  any.  It  is  most  important,  therefore,  to  have  the  proper 
person  in  charge  even  if  she  is  not  ' '  consecrated, ' '  and  must  have 
a  large  salary,  for  upon  her,  more  than  anyone  else,  depends  the 
success  of  the  home.  In  establishing  these  homes,  two  classes  of 
girls  must  be  taken  into  consideration.  The  first  class  consists 
of  that  large  group  of  girls  over  twenty-five  years  of  age  with 
limited  earning  capacity,  and  who,  therefore,  are  able  to  pay 
from  $3.00  to  $6.00  per  week.  For  them  we  require  a  system  of 
boarding  and  lodging  houses  where  they  will  be  free  to  come  and 
go  without  qiiestion,  as  they  no  longer  need  the  moral  back- 
ground that  younger  girls  require.  These  homes  should  be 
absolutely  self-supporting.  They  should  be  plain  and  comfort- 
able, and  the  girls  should  only  get  that  for  which  they  are  able 
to  pay.  In  New  York,  where  so  many  homes  are  needed,  it  might 
be  well  to  grade  them  according  to  price,  so  that  the  girl  in  the 
$3.00  a  week  house  would  be  ambitious  enough  to  want  the  extra 
comforts  she  could  get  by  paying  $5.00  per  week.  The  Franklin 
Square  House  in  Boston,  the  Eleanor  Hotel  in  Chicago,  where 
the  price  of  board  is  $2.75  and  $3.25  per  week,  prove  that  these 
homes  can  be  made  self-supporting.  In  the  coming  month  Mr. 
W.  K.  C.  Martin,  of  New  York,  will  open  his  hotel,  "The  Trow- 
mart  Inn,"  which  will  accommodate  from  300  to  400  girls  at 
$4.50  and  $5.00  per  week.  This  hotel  no  doubt  will  soon  be  full 
to  overflowing,  and  if  properly  managed,  will,  I  am  sure,  pay  a 
small  percentage  on  the  investment.  This  should  lead  other 
philanthropists  to  put  up  similar  buildings  in  cheaper  neighbor- 
hoods, so  that  those  women  earning  from  $5.00  to  $7.00  per  week 
can  be  cared  for  at  prices  suitable  to  their  scanty  purses.  Some 
few  years  ago,  desiring  to  have  a  list  of  places  where  girls  with 
a,  very  small  income  could  board,  I  advertised  in  the  daily  papers 
for  room  and  board,  the  price  not  to  exceed  $3.00  per  week. 
I '  received  some  twenty-five  answers,  and  visited  each  place. 
My  heart  ached  for  the  poor  unfortunates  who  would  be  con- 
demned to  live  in  such  surroundings ;  for  with  few  exceptions,  the 
rooms  were  dark  and  filthy,  and  I  was  glad  to  beat  a  hasty  re- 
treat. The  other,  and  to  my  mind,  the  more  important  group, 
and  the  one  that  should  be  our  first  consideration,  consists  of  those 


108  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  FOURTH 

beginners  in  the  world  of  toil,  girls  between  the  ages  of  fifteen 
and  twenty-five,  to  whom  the  pleasures  of  life  are  so  dear,  whose 
young  hearts  yearn  for  light  and  warmth,  and  physical  comforts 
and  who  very  often,  not  because  they  are  vicious,  but  because 
lacking  the  proper  environment,  join  "the  ranks  of  that  other, 
silent   figure   in   the   tragedy  of   failure,   the   long  lost   erring 
Eunice"  whom  Miss  Richardson  so  pathetically  describes.     The 
question  has  been  raised  that  as  soon  as  employers  find  that  hotels 
and  homes  for  working  girls  are  being  established  where  they 
can  get  board  and  lodging  for  $3.00  per  week,  the  salaries  will  be 
cut  down  and  philanthropists  will  be  supplementing  the  wages 
that  girls  should  be  earning.    My  experience  during  nearly  seven 
years  has  been  quite  the  reverse.     In  the  first  place  many  em- 
ployers do  not  take  the  trouble  to  inquire  where  the  girls  whom 
they  employ  are  living,  except  that  very  often  the  girl  who  lives 
with  her  parents  secures  the  coveted  position,  and  has  precedence 
over  the  girl  who  boards,  no  matter  how  small  the  amount  she  has 
to  pay,  because  the  girl  with  a  home  can  afford  to  accept  the 
smaller  wage.     It  frequently  happens,  however,  when  the  em- 
ployer does  find  out  that  the  girl  in  his  employ  is  living  in  a  home, 
that  he  becomes  very  much  interested,  and  she  is  among  the 
last  to  be  "laid  off,"  as  he  appreciates  that  her  problem  of 
tiding  over  the  dull  season  is  a  difficult  one.     If  the  home  has 
achieved  any  sort  of  reputation,  the  employer  very  often  prefers 
its  girls  because  he  knows  that  the  girl  from  that  home  is  re- 
spectable, that  she  is  living  in  good  surroundings,  is  properly 
nourished,  and,  therefore,  much  better  able  to  work  than  those 
who  live  in  unhealthy  lodgings,   dining  in  cheap  restaurants; 
that  she  does  not  spend  her  time  idling,  is  not  given  to  the  use 
of  ugly  language,  and  lacks  the  bold  ways  that  too  often  char- 
acterize those  girls  "who  are  a  law  sufficient  unto  themselves." 
What  difference  could  it  possibly  make  to  an  employer  whether 
the  girl  paid  her  board  in  a  home  where  she  had  not  only  the 
necessities  of  life,  but  some  of  its  comforts  as  well,  or  whether 
she  lived  in  a  cheerless  hall  bedroom,  taking  her  meals  in  restau- 
rants, except  that  the  work  gotten  from  the  former  would  be  of  a 
much  better  quality  than  the  latter  could  possibly  give.    Philan- 
thropists will  not  have  to  supplement  the  wages  of  working  girls 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  109 

because  model  homes  are  provided.  Girls  are,  as  a  rule,  under- 
paid, but  that  is  due  to  the  fact  that  competition  is  so  great  on 
the  one  hand  that  prices  are  continually  being  cut,  and  the  other, 
and  more  important  reason,  is  that  the  majority  of  girls  have  not 
been  taught  how  to  work  properly,  and,  therefore,  in  the  em- 
ployer's estimation,  usually  get  as  much  as  they  are  worth.  We 
need  trade  training  schools,  but  that  is  an  entirely  diff erent  ques- 
tion, and  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  here.  Recently  at  a  meeting  in 
Xew  York  called  to  consider  the  advisability  of  establishing 
Homes  for  Working  Girls,  one  of  the  gentlemen  present  created 
a  hubbub  of  excitement  because  he  declared  that  there  was  no 
place  for  the  girl  who  only  earned  $3.00  per  week,  her  position 
was  hopeless,  and  she  would  have  to  be  left  to  herself.  It  is  true 
the  position  of  the  girl  who  is  no  longer  young  and  who  only 
earns  $3.00  per  week  is  hopeless,  and  perhaps  we  cannot  con- 
sider her,  but  while  there  always  will  be  girls  earning  $3.00  per 
week,  fortunately  it  is  a  moving  crowd,  because  as  quickly  as  the 
$3.00  girl  advances,  there  is  always  another  girl  who  is  just 
beginning  who  is  ready  to  take  her  place.  She  is  by  no  means 
hopeless  however.  The  girls  with  whom  I  have  come  into  contact 
rarely  remain  $3.00  girls  very  long.  Either  they  are  given  the 
opportunity  of  learning  a  trade,  or  they  are  made  ambitious  by 
those  in  charge  to  improve  their  position.  The  very  fact  that  a 
girl  has  a  comfortable  home,  that  she  is  not  cold  and  hungry  gives 
her  the  ambition  to  improve  her  condition.  She  goes  to  the 
night  school,  or  joins  one  of  the  many  evening  classes,  so  gen- 
erously provided  for  the  purpose  of  helping  girls  to  help  them- 
selves, and  before  long  she  has  increased  her  earning  capacity. 
In  a'  home  like  ours,  one  girl  is  an  incentive  to  another.  The 
office  girl  earning  $4.00  a  week  comes  in  contact  with  the  stenog- 
rapher earning  $8.00  or  $10.00,  and  consequently  she  becomes 
ambitious,  and  soon  joins  a  class  in  stenography  in  order  to  be 
able  to  better  her  position,  and  get  a  larger  salary.  I  find  also 
that  girls  are  not  always  properly  placed.  They  take  the  first 
thing  that  offers  because  they  must  have  work,  and  are  not  ex- 
perienced enough  to  know  how  to  make  the  best  use  of  the  talents 
they  possess.  Upon  the  superintendent 's  more  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  these  girls,  their  possibilities  are  discovered,  and  they 


110  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

are  placed  in  positions  where  their  earning  capacity  is  of  the 
greatest  value. 

Another  class  of  girls  who  have  received  very  little  attention 
from  philanthropists  and  those  interested  in  all  that  pertains  to 
the  welfare  of  women,  are  servant  girls.  Their  condition  is  in- 
deed pathetic  in  the  extreme,  for  when  they  are  out  of  work,  their 
usual  lodging  houses^  are  the  back  rooms  of  one  or  the  other 
so-called  "Intelligence  Offices,"  many  of  which  are  more  or  less 
disreputable.  In  articles  written  in  the  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines, as  well  as  in  her  book,  entitled,  "Out  of  "Work,"  Frances 
Kellor  has  pointed  out  in  no  uncertain  terms  the  dangers  to 
which  this  large  group  of  girls  is  subjected.  In  each  community 
there  should  be  a  home  for  servant  girls,  where  a  girl  temporarily 
out  of  work  could  board  until  she  secures  another  position.  Very 
often,  too,  these  girls,  who  have  very  little  time  to  themselves,  as 
most  households  are  constituted  to-day,  require  a  few  days'  time 
between  places,  in  order  to  renovate  their  clothes,  or  rest  up  a 
bit.  The  home  could  have  its  attractive  sitting  rooms  Avhere 
these  girls  could  spend  their  free  evening,  or  Sunday,  and  re- 
ceive their  men  friends,  a  privilege  seldom  enjoyed  by  them  in 
the  ordinary  household.  They  would  go  back  to  their  work 
happier,  and  better  for  the  relaxation,  and  perhaps  part  of  the 
servant  problem  would  be  solved.  Thus  far  I  have  considered 
the  subject  generally,  but  what  have  we  as  Jews  been  doing  for 
those  of  our  co-religionists  who,  because  of  the  dietary  laws,  find 
it  impossible  to  live  in  the  usual  Working  Girls'  Homes?  What 
problems  are  we  facing  for  the  future  ?  I  believe  the  women  of 
Baltimore  were  the  first  Jewish  women  to  recognize  the  need 
of  such  a  home,  and  fully  ten  years  ago,  opened  the  doors  of  a 
modest  dwelling  to  a  few  girls  who  were  orphans,  or  who  had 
no  parents  in  this  country.  The  home  soon  grew  too  small,  and 
they  bought  the  beautiful  house  in  which  to-day  they  are  caring 
for  twenty-eight  girls. 

The  next  home  to  be  established  for  Jewish  working  girls  was 
the  Clara  de  Hirsch  Home  in  New  York,  over  which  it  has  been 
my  privilege  to  preside  for  nearly  seven  years.  This  home 
occupies  a  unique  position,  as  it  is  different  from  any  of  the 
homes  in  this  country,  combining  as  it  does,  a  trade  training 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  Ill 

school  for  girls,  and  a  boarding  department  for  those  who  go  to 
work.  The  two  features  are  closely  allied  and  interdependent. 
There  are  135  girls  living  in  the  large  building  provided  for  the 
purpose,  through  the  generosity  of  the  late  Baroness  de  Hirsch, 
who  also  endowed  the  institution.  Of  these,  85  girls  are  merely 
boarders,  paying  as  a  rule  $3.00  per  week,  although  some  few  are 
taken  for  less  until  their  earning  capacity  has  been  increased  in 
the  way  I  have  pointed  out.  When  Miss  Richardson's  book  first 
appeared,  I  placed  it  in  the  hands  of  a  group  of  my  most  intelli- 
gent girls,  getting  them  to  read  it,  and  discuss  it  freely.  To  my 
utter  amazement,  when  Miss  Richardson  came  to  dine  with  me 
one  evening,  she  told  me  she  had  received  a  letter  from  one  of 
these  girls,  who  wrote  that  having  carefully  read  the  book,  she 
begged  Miss  Richardson  to  come  to  visit  the  Clara  de  Hirsch 
Home,  as  it  was  very  much  like  the  ideal  one  which  she  described. 
It  has  but  two  rules:  Punctuality  at  breakfast,  and  the  house 
closes  at  10 :30  every  evening,  except  Saturday,  when  it  is  open 
until  12,  to  give  the  girls  an  opportunity  to  go  to  the  theatre,  etc. 
Exceptions  to  this  rule  are  frequently  made  when  a  group  of 
girls  desire  to  go  anywhere.  As  they  are  all  between  the  ages 
of  15  and  25,  it  can  be  readily  understood  that  there  must  be  a 
time  limit.  Everything  is  done  to  make  the  girls  feel  as  if  they 
were  living  in  their  own  homes,  and  to  do  away  as  much  as 
possible  with  the  artificiality  of  institution  life.  The  girls  are 
allowed  to  entertain  their  friends,  and  to  have  them  at  meals  at 
a  nominal  cost.  The  social  life  is  a  most  important  feature,  and 
every  Sunday  evening  the  library  is  gay  with  music,  song  and 
dance,  for  it  is  the  evening  when  most  girls  receive  their  men 
friends,  and  is  usually  the  occasiQn  of  a  jolly  good  time.  The 
young  men  are  encouraged  to  call,  for  it  is  our  aim  to  make  the 
home  attractive  not  only  to  the  girls,  but  to  their  friends,  so  that 
they  will  have  less  desire  to  seek  pleasure  elsewhere  in  places 
and  ways  which  may  lead  to  infinite  harm.  The  beautiful  library 
with  its  well  filled  book-shelves,  and  its  comfortable  furniture 
entices  the  girl  to  rest  after  her  day's  toil,  to  entertain  a  friend, 
or  read  a  book.  To  those  who  have  been  engaged  all  day  with 
hundreds  of  others,  hearing  the  busy  hum  of  machinery,  the 
quiet  of  her  own  room  is  most  attractive,  for  in  this  home  almost 


112  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  FOURTH 

every  girl  has  a  room  to  herself,  a  comfort  much  appreciated. 
The  great  drawback  to  the  Clara  de  Hirsch  Home  is  the  fact  that 
owing  to  its  size,  and  the  educational  work  that  it  is  doing,  it 
can  never  be  made  self-supporting.  This  has  not  lessened  the 
independent  spirit  of  the  girls,  however,  nor  has  it  pauperized 
them  because  they  understand  why  it  cannot  be  done,  and  are 
ambitious  to  improve  and  make  room  for  those  who  need  it  as 
they  did.  During  the  past  year,  the  Jewish  women  of  Chicago 
have  awakened  to  the  necessity  of  providing  homes  for  Jewish 
working  girls,  and  as  a  result,  two  have  opened  their  doors.  The 
first  opened  last  June,  called  "The  Miriam,"  occupies  three 
apartments  in  a  four-story  apartment  house,  and  accommodates 
26  girls.  In  a  letter  received  recently  from  one  of  the  directresses, 
I  am  assured  that  the  home  is  now  absolutely  self-supporting, 
the  girls  paying  from  $2.00  to  $3.50  per  week  for  board,  and  that 
through  the  efforts  of  those  in  charge,  the  wage-earning  capacity 
of  each  girl  has  been  considerably  increased.  This  directress 
also  wrote  me  that  if  they  had  a  building  suitable  where  they 
could  accommodate  40  or  50  girls,  she  felt  sure  they  would  be 
able  after  the  first  year  to  pay  a  small  per  cent,  on  the  invest- 
ment. 

The  second  home  opened  in  January,  called  "The  Ruth,"  has 
accommodations  for  16  girls,  and  is  also  said  to  be  self -supporting. 
Surely  these  successful  attempts  should  encourage  others  to  pro- 
vide suitable  homes  for  Jewish  working  girls  in  those  cities  where 
they  are  required. 

We  are  now  facing  a  heavy  immigration,  and  hundreds  of  girls 
are  coming  from  Russia,  Roumania,  Galicia,  and  Hungary,  un- 
accompanied by  their  parents,  and  very  frequently  having  no 
friends  in  this  country  with  whom  they  can  live.  What  are  we 
going  to  do  for  these  girls?  Shall  we  leave  them  to  their  fate? 
Alone,  unaccustomed  to  American  ways,  strangers  in  a  strange 
land,  is  it  any  wonder  they  become  the  prey  of  unscrupulous 
people  whom  they  have  trusted  because  they  promised  to  secure 
them  work  or  a  lodging  ?  A  few  years  ago  I  picked  up  the  New 
York  Herald  one  morning  and  read  where  two  Russian  girls, 
sisters,  had  attempted  to  asphyxiate  themselves,  having  become 
discouraged  because  their  money  was  gone,  and  they  had  not 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  113 

been  successful  in  finding  work.  We  immediately  sent  to  the 
hospital  to  which  they  had  been  sent,  and  had  them  brought  to 
the  home.  They  were  girls  of  wealthy  parents,  and  owing  to 
family  troubles,  had  decided  to  seek  their  fortune  in  America, 
feeling  sure  they  could  earn  a  splendid  living.  They  were  in- 
telligent, and  even  had  some  knowledge  of  English,  but,  alas, 
they  soon  discovered  that  their  talents  had  no  market  value  in 
this  country,  and  after  many  weeks  of  deprivation,  they  finally 
decided  to  end  it  all.  Unfortunately,  one  of  these  girls  became 
a  victim  of  melancholia,  and  finally  had  to  be  sent  back,  but  the 
other  was  encouraged,  and  helped,  and  to-day  would  not  be  recog- 
nized as  the  unfortunate  girl  of  two  years  ago.  This  is  not  an 
isolated  case.  The  story  repeats  itself  with  one  variation  or  an- 
other, over  and  over  again,  and  if  we  wish  to  meet  our  highest 
obligations,  we  must  heed  the  immigrant  girls'  cry  for  help. 
Owing  to  the  heavy  immigration  of  single  girls  during  the  past 
two  years,  the  trustees  of  the  Clara  de  Hirsh  Home  opened  a 
special  home  for  immigrant  girls,  during  which  time  they  have 
cared  for  fully  600  girls.  Do  you  not  think  it  has  meant  much 
to  these  girls  to  have  had  a  decent  home,  and  friendly  advice  on 
their  arrival  in  this  country  ?  In  smaller  cities  there  would  be  no 
need  for  a  separate  home  for  immigrant  girls,  but  something 
must  be  done  for  the  immigrant  girls  who  very  often  come  to  the 
larger  cities  with  wrong  or  incomplete  addresses  and  through  ig- 
norance are  robbed  and  cheated  and  endangered  in  many  ways. 
' '  An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure, ' '  and  by  pro- 
viding decent  homes  for  these  girls  upon  their  arrival  in  a  new 
land  we  guard  them  against  the  scoundrels  who  are  waiting  to 
take  advantage  of  their  ignorance  'and  innocence. 

Study  the  situation  in  your  own  city  and  do  what  you  can  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  Jewish  Working  Girl  by  giving  her 
a  decent  comfortable  home.  It  can  raise  her  from  a  lonely  crea- 
ture who  seeks  companionship  and  excitement  where  and  how  she 
may,  thereby  endangering  all  her  womanhood,  to  the  happy 
healthy  normal  girl  who  loves  pleasure  but  who  has  a  realization 

of  her  responsibilities. 

DISCUSSION. 

DR.  HENRY  BERKOWITZ,  Philadelphia:  One  of  our  most  en- 
thusiastic workers  in  work  of  this  kind  in  this  community  made 


114  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

the  remark  to  me  last  week  that  when  we  hear  the  voice  of  a 
helpless  little  child,  it  is  impossible  to  resist  it.  We,  too,  are  in 
full  accord  with  that  sentiment,  and  probably  with  equal  effect 
might  it.be  said,  when  we  hear  the  cry  of  an  innocent  girl  for 
help,  that  our  hearts  are  wrung  none  the  less.  I  rise  for  the 
purpose  of  drawing  attention  to  the  fact  that  this  paper  has 
again  re-echoed  the  call  of  New  York  City,  and  of  the  great 
cities  to  the  smaller  ones,  North  and  South,  that  something  be 
done  to  relieve  the  horrible  conditions  which  are  resulting  in 
putting  a  stain,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  upon  the  purity  of 
Jewish  women.  It  is  a  matter  so  grave  that  it  rocks  the  very 
foundations  of  our  homes — homes  that  have  been  symbols  for  all 
that  is  sweet  and  noble  for  so  many  generations,  and  that  we. 
in  this  age  of  light,  should  have  come  to  face  this  new  and  un- 
known problem  is  a  matter  that  certainly  excites  in  us  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  gravest  and  most  earnest  reflection. 

MRS.  GALL  AND,  Wilkesbarre:  I  desire  to  say  something  about 
this  question.  It  is  a  question  which  concerns  small  communi- 
ties; it  doesn't  concern  large  cities  only.  Girls  go  astray  in  my 
own  town  where  we  have  no  great  charities  to  take  hold  of  the 
question  and  build  homes.  It  is  very  hard  to  know  how  to  bring 
joy  to  the  lives  of  these  girls.  The  girl  doesn't  go  wrong  be- 
cause she  deliberately  desires  vice;  she  goes  wrong  only  because 
she  deliberately  desires  joy,  and  it  is  this  which  agitates  us  in 
our  town.  We  have  no  very  rich  people.  We  may  have  a 
thousand  Jewish  families,  but  many  are  miserably  poor.  We 
have  had  some  lovely  girls  go  wrong  and  we  try  our  best  to  make 
them  feel  that  we  are  interested  in  the  families — -in  the  preser- 
vation of  the  children  and  home,  and  in  the  preservation  of  the 
family.  It  is  difficult  to  hold  them  together  and  produce  better 
environments.  It  is  very  hard  to  work  against  environments. 
You  cannot  produce  good  things  in  a  bad  and  unhealthy  atmos- 
phere. That  is  a  problem  of  all  charity — change  of  environ- 
ment. 

MR.  A.  R.  LEVY,  Chicago:  I  would  say  this:  These  institu- 
tions will  be  ample  if  they  can  be  made  self-sustaining.  I  have, 
heard  he^re  that  the  home  in  New  York  has  also  for  its  object, 
the  training  of  girls.  I  would  like  to  suggest  to  the  ladies  that 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  115 

are  connected  with  these  institutions,  that  we  have  few  Jewish 
girls  that  are  content  to  go  into  homes,  and  often  good  homes  in 
Jewish  families.  I  am  speaking  of  the  $5  a  week  earning-power 
girl.  We  are  paying  $6  a  week,  and  a  good  home  besides,  and 
we  can  find  very  few.  Now  permit  me  to  suggest  to  you,  would 
it  not  be  possible  to  train  these  girls?  To  go  to  a  factory  an-I 
work,  or  to  go  to  any  establishment,  is  to  do  something  that  can 
be  done  by  most  everybody.  To  be  in  a  home  and  arrange  that 
home  to  be  a  pleasant  and  comfortable  home,  is,  the  thing  that  we 
want.  Let  me  tell  you,  ladies  especially,  I  have  known  in  my  ex- 
perience, a  poor  man  who  had  a  good  wife— possessed  a  wife 
that  gave  him  a  comfortable  home — a  home  than  which  no 
sensible  man  or  woman  needs  better,  and  he  made  only  $7  a  week. 
It  is  in  the  nature  of  men  to  desire  to  have  good  wives.  I  think 
this  is  the  greatest  difficulty  to  overcome.  While  we  have  men  who 
are  able  to  work  and  make  ten  and  twelve  dollars  a  week,  we  have 
no  women  that  can  arrange  their  homes  comfortably  with  that 
little  amount  of  money,  and  therein  lies  the  difficulty  in  the 
Jewish  girl  question.  They  come  from  homes  where  they  had  ab- 
solutely nothing  to  do,  with  a  lack  of  energy.  I  tell  you,  the 
factory  will  never  bring  about  a  solution  of  that  problem.  Teach 
the  girls  that  are  there,  some  work  of  utility  for  women.  After 
all.  we  cannot  change  nature.  I  would  be  satisfied  for  men  to 
become  cooks  and  learn  everything  in  the  development  of  the 
house,  but  there  is  one  law  that  is  immutable — a  man  can  never 
become  a  mother.  I  hope  and  trust  that  these  institutions  will 
multiply.  Let  the  standard  be  the  girl  that  understands  her  own 
house.  Let  that  be  the  standard,  and  we  will  gain  in  the  end. 

MRS.  CHARLES  ISRAELS,  New  York :  Domestic  service,  in  some 
way  seems  to  be  adverse  for  two  reasons  to  the  American  girl. 
Take  our  foreign  girls — foreign  domestic  servants.  When  they 
go  into  a  family  they  imbibe  very  much  the  spirit  of  American 
freedom.  Never,  except  in  rare  instances,  would  they  consider 
for  one  moment  that  their  daughters  should  become  servants  in 
people's  houses.  My  second  reason  is  (from  personal  experience 
with  girls  near  home)  that  the  proper  amount  of  preventive  work 
has  not  been  done.  I  speak  from  experience  with  a  small  institu- 


116  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

tion  for  such  girls  recently  founded  in  New  York.  Domestic 
service  is  usually  considered  such  an  unsafe  position  in  which 
to  place  a  young  girl  that  eighty  per  cent,  who  are  under  our 
care  as  having  gone  absolutely  wrong  have  been  domestic  ser- 
vants and  not  girls  in  factories  or  other  institutions.  I  regret 
that  it  should  be  so,  but  the  Jewish  girl  in  domestic  service  seems 
to  be  open  to  so  many  temptations,  that  she  seems  to  fall  a  vic- 
tim more  readily  and  more  easily  than  her  sisters.  The  diffi- 
culty seems  to  be  again  the  lack  of  proper  amusement  and  a 
proper  place  for  these  girls  to  go.  The  trouble  seems  to  be  that 
they  go  wrong  in  fruitless  search  of  amusement,  and  in  making 
the  right  kind  of  friends  in  particular.  They  have  no  homes 
to  visit,  and  must  go  to  cheap  places  where  they  fall  victims  of 
very  pleasant  young  men. 

MRS.  MAX  LANDSBERG,  Rochester:  I  think  there  is  another 
phase  to  this  question.  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  great  many  of 
these  people  who  come  to  New  York  are  perfectly  unable  to  look 
after  their  children.  I  speak  from  the  standpoint  of  the  smaller 
city,  and  perhaps  have  not  the  same  experience.  However,  I 
find  parents  neglect  their  children  and  they  run  wild.  The 
mother,  perhaps,  is  overworked,  and  there  is  a  lot  of  children,  al- 
though in  some  cases  I  find  the  mother  is  in  some  asylam,  the  sis- 
ters go  out  working  during  the  day,  and  the  boy  is  left  to  look 
after  himself.  If  that  boy  doesn't  go  to  school,  the  New  York 
law  is  that  the  father  must  pay  a  fine.  The  father  will  say,  "That 
child  is  an  ungovernable  child,  and  I  can't  send  him  to  school. 
He  won't  go."  That  boy  would  be  a  splendid  boy  if  he  had  a 
good  home.  The  parents,  perhaps,  cannot  have  it.  What  we 
need,  I  think,  in  every  one  of  those  cases,  is  a  school  like  you  have 
here  in  Philadelphia  for  the  grown-up  boys — for  boys  over  six- 
teen— an  agricultural  school  for  boys  from  ten  years  or  even 
younger ;  but  insist  upon  it  that  the  father  has  to  pay  part  or  all 
of  the  expense,  according  to  circumstances,  for  its  maintenance. 
I  think  if  that  was  done,  the  homes  would  be  much  better  for 
those  boys,  and  the  fathers  would  look  after  them  and  see  that  the 
boy  was  at  home,  or  one  of  the  grown  up  children  would  look  out 
for  the  boy.  If  that  could  not  be  done,  the  best  thing  to  do 
would  be  to  remove  him  from  such  surroundings  and  have  him 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  117 

go  to  the  agricultural  school,  go  on  a  farm,  or  somewhere,  and 
learn  something,  but  the  father  must  pay.  That  is  the  main 
thing,  I  think.  The  parents  are  entirely  too  willing  to  get  their 
children  admitted  to  institutions  at  the  expense  of  the  State. 
I  think  that  is  done  a  great  deal,  and  I  am  very  sorry  to  see 
that  it  is. 

iliss  SADIE  AMERICAN,  New  York:  Mr.  Chairman;  I  want  to 
offer  a  suggestion;  it  may  lead  the  way  to  some  practical  work 
that  may  be  done  in  institutions  in  which  are  Jewish  delinquent 
children — not  Jewish  institutions.  It  is  a  fact  that  it  is  only  of 
late  years  that  we  have  had  our  attention  attracted  to  Jewish 
delinquents,  from  small  to  grown  up,  and  personally  I  do  not 
attribute  this,  as  so  many  do,  to  Russians  coming  in,  as  to  the 
fact,  that  among  large  numbers  it  is  bound  to  happen;  also  to 
the  fact  that  it  is  well  known  that  in  the  course  of  adaptation  of 
immigrants  to  a  new  country,  the  younger  generation  of  children 
— the  children  brought  over  very  young,  or  born  here,  especially 
when  they  become  industrially  independent  at  so  early  an  age  as 
they  do,  and  are  forced  to  do  in  this  country,  bring  about  prob- 
lems of  reaction  against  authority.  Whatever  the  cause  may 
be,  we  do  find  in  our  training  schools,  in  our  institutions,  in 
Bridewell,  and  in  other  cities  where  there  are  so-called  industrial 
schools,  many  Jewish  children.  They  are  permitted  to  go  there 
through  our  Juvenile  Courts.  When  they  come  from  an  institu- 
tion— children  coming  out  of  the  institution  in  which  they  are  de- 
tained are  always  looked  upon  as  having  done  something  unusual 
and  singled  out  as  having  had  a  peculiar  experience,  they 
come  out  with  a  sense  of  shame,  and  the  fact  that  they  have  been  in 
that  institution,  is  thrown  against  them  by  parents  and  others.  Tn 
either  case,  they  need  someone  who  shall  put  them  into  a  normal 
state  of  mind,  and  who,  if  they  are  of  a  working  age,  shall  help 
them  to  get  employment  and  shall  be  a  friend.  For  boys,  pre- 
sumably a  big  brother  who  shall  be  an  example ;  for  girls,  some- 
one to  educate  them  after  the  period  when  they  most  need  guid- 
ance. It  is  a  curious  fact  that  at  the  lesser  age,  both  the  boys 
and  girls  are  much  the  worst  and  difficult  to  control.  We  have 
found  delinquent  children  between  twelve  and  sixteen  much 
more  difficult  to  handle  than  those  over  that  age.  These  cases 
time  will  not  permit  me  to  go  into  now. 


118  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

You  will  find  in  all  the  institutions,  municipal  or  state,  the 
Catholic  churches  as  a  rule  send  a  man  to  look  out  for  their 
children,  and  the  Jews  send  either  nobody  or  else  someone  not 
particularly  fitted  to  look  after  the  welfare  of  the  children  as 
they  come  out,  because  to  send  someone  to  an  institution  to  hold 
religious  services  or  to  teach  the  Bible  is  entirely  inadequate  and 
fruitless  unless  it  is  followed  up  by  work  as  the  child  comes  out, 
and  unless  it  is  preceded  before  the  child  comes  out,  by  so  gain- 
ing his  confidence  that  the  child  will  be  glad  to  point  to  the  re- 
ligious teacher  there  not  merely  as  a  Sunday  School  teacher,  or 
as  a  holder  of  religious  services,  but  as  a  real  friend  to  whom  he 
will  attach  himself  and  look  for  guidance.  The  suggestion  I  have 
to  make  is  to  all  those  here,  especially  the  women,  because  it  is  a 
mother,  much  more  than  a  father,  that  these  children  need.  We 
have  altogether  too  few  women  in  the  actual  management  of  these 
various  institutions.  I  want  to  recommend  to  the  women  all  over 
the  country  that  they  ascertain  where  there  are  Jewish  children 
in  any  city  or  state  institutions  connected  with  their  towns,  or  in 
the  neighborhood  of  their  homes,  that  they  make  periodical  visits, 
or  send  someone  particularly  suited  to  make  periodical  visits  and 
give  instruction,  and  keep  up  the  connection  and  relation- 
ship until  the  child  gets  strong  enough  physically  and  spirit- 
ually and  morally  to  walk  by  itself. 

THE  PRESIDENT  :  In  Chicago,  no  child  comes  out  of  the  insti- 
tution to  which  delinquent  children  are  sent,  and  of  course  this 
applies  to  Jew  and  non-Jew,  without  an  inquiry  being  first  made 
as  to  the  home  and  home  surroundings,  and  if  these  are  not 
found  proper,  the  child  is  either  kept  longer  or  some  other  home 
is  found.  The  child  is,  placed  in  charge  of  a  probation  officer.  AVe 
work  up  a  large  corps  of  friendly  visitors.  The  best  work  of  this 
kind  is  done  among  the  Jews,  and  in  accordance  with  what  one 
of  the  speakers  has  said,  we  have  gotten  some  thirty  or  forty 
young  men — that  is,  Jewish  probation  officers  have  obtained  some 
thirty  or  forty  young  fellows  who  are  ready  and  willing  to  give 
some  help.  They  are  having  wonderful  success  with  their  boys. 

Another  movement  I  am  very  glad  to  call  attention  to  is  i.n 
Omaha,  where  the  chief  probation  officer  is  a  Jew.  He  has  been  a 
street  boy  himself.  He  began  on  the  street  at  the  age  of  five,  and  is 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  119 

now  a  married  man  a  little  over  thirty,  and  he  is  in  charge  of 
the  circulation  department  of  one  of  the  newspapers.  A  report 
was  issued  there  a  year  ago.  He  was  at  once  made  chief  proba- 
tion officer.  He  started  a  newsboys  club  on  his  own  account 
about  five  years  ago,  and  maintained  it  himself  until  last 
year.  A  splendid  body  of  citizens  has  taken  it  up,  and  is  now 
managing  it  to  a  certain  extent.  His  whole  heart  and  soul  is  in 
the  movement.  He  has  250  newsboys  enlisted,  none  of  whom 
swear,  smoke,  chew,  drink  or  gamble.  He  has  a  nice  room  for 
them  where  they  play  billiards,  checkers  and  all  games.  He 
gets  passes  to  go  out  at  little  expense,  takes  them  to  the  theatre 
every  once  in  a  while,  and  does  any  number  of  things  for  those 
boys.  The  influence  of  that  one  man  is  over-powering  for  their 
good  in  the  City  of  Omaha.  I  am  very  glad  to  say  he  is  a  Jew. 

Before  Miss  Sommerfeld  closes  the  discussion,  I  would 
say  that  it  would  seem  of  first  importance,  as  one  speaker 
said,  to  have  the  education  based  on  essentials — that  the  educa- 
tion should  be,  first,  for  the  preparation  of  the  girls  in  their  own 
homes  after  they  are  married,  and  when  it  comes  to  the  prepara- 
tion for  service  as  servants,  the  education  should  be  from 
the  other  end.  The  housewives  are  the  ones  who  especially 
need  the  education  for  service— not  the  servants,  but  the  house- 
wives. 

One  word  more.  From  an  experience  both  in  the  Divorce  and 
in  the  Juvenile  Courts,  I  would  say  that  too  much  emphasis  can- 
not be  laid  upon  education  in  domestic  science — in  the  prepara- 
tion for  marriage — for  surely  one  of  the  great  causes  of  the  di- 
vorce evil  and  of  disruptions  in  the  family  that  tend  to  bring 
the  children  into  the  Juvenile  Court,  is  this  total  lack  of  prepa- 
ration on  the  part  of  those  who  belong  to  the  class  of  the  work- 
ing girl.  They  marry  working  men  who  hope  to  find  the  real 
comforts  of  a  home  after  marriage.  They  fail  to  find  them, 
and  the  divorce  follows  as  a  natural  consequence.  So  I  say. 
while  under  the  present  conditions  of  the  servant  girl  question, 
it  is  wise  to  train  our  Jewish  girls  for  industrial  work,  we  must 
not  neglect  to  train  them  for  their  future  condition  as  married 
women,  and  train  them  thoroughly  in  that  respect. 


120  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

Miss  SOMMERFELD:  I  will  say  that  being  a  great  advocate  of 
matrimony,  we  try  to  make  all  the  matches  we  possibly  can  at 
the  Clara  de  Hirsch  Home,  because  we  really  believe  salvation 
for  the  working  girl  lies  in  the  fact  of  being  married  and  hav- 
ing a  home  of  her  own ;  so  that  we  do  give  girls  as  much  train- 
ing as  we  possibly  can  to  make  them  housekeepers,  not  servants— 
that  part  of  the  work  has  been  a  decided  failure.  We  do  train 
them  so  that  when  they  do  get  married,  they  will  be  the  right  sort 
of  home  keepers.  I  want  to  say  that  quite  a  number  of  the  girls 
have  married,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  they  are  in  excellent 
homes — very  much  better  than  the  homes  from  which  they  came. 
The  training  has  done  them  good,  because  after  having  lived  for 
a  year  or  two  in  a  systematic,  cleanly  household,  they  have  im- 
bibed that  training — they  absorb  it  to  a  certain  extent  and  really 
have  very  nice  homes  of  their  own.  I  have  visited  a  great  many 
of  the  girls  that  have  married  and  they  have  very  nice 
homes — very  superior  to  the  homes  from  which  they  came  when 
they  came  to  the  Clara  de  Hirsch  Home.  I  also  want  to  make 
clear  that  we  would  not  want  to  take  a  girl  out  of  her  natural 
environment.  I  would  not  advocate  homes  for  working  girls 
who  have  parents  living  in  the  same  city.  They  should  be  for 
orphans,  or  girls  with  step-fathers  and  step-mothers;  also 
for  girls  whose  parents  are  still  living  abroad. 

What  I  feel  as  a  necessity  is  some  place  where  girls  can  be 
taken  care  of — where  they  can  have  the  freedom  to  come  and  go 
as  they  please,  but  where  they  will  be  under  proper  care  and  pro- 
tection— pay  for  everything  that  they  get.  I  believe  that  it  is 
much  better — much  wiser  to  start  this  plan  on  a  small  scale,  as 
was  done  in  Chicago. 

HEBREW  EDUCATION  SOCIETY,  TOURO  HALL,  10  A.  M.,  May  8, 1906. 

STATE  AID  TO  SECTARIAN  INSTITUTIONS. 
MORRIS  LOEB,  PH.D.,  New  York  City. 

The  traveler  in  Switzerland  observes  two  kinds  of  lakes;  the 
ones  in  the  highlands  are  the  everlasting  fountain-heads  of  the 
great  rivers  that  traverse  Europe;  the  others,  in  open  valleys, 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  121 

receive  these  torrents  and  retard  their  flow,  giving  them  an  op- 
portunity to  deposit  the  particles  of  rock  and  earth  that  they  have 
carried  with  them ;  so  that  the  gray  mountain  stream  which  enters 
at  the  one  end  issues  a  limpid  and  majestic  river.  Conferences 
such  as  these  may  perform  either  of  these  functions  in  the 
current  of  philanthropy;  either  they  may  serve  as  a  reservoir 
whence  enthusiastic  efforts  shall  derive  their  being,  or  as  the 
settling  basin,  where  overstrenuous  tendencies  may,  in  calm  de- 
liberation, be  deprived  of  some  of  the  flotsam  and  jetsam  that 
they  are  carrying  with  them  in  their  rush.  If,  therefore,  I  have 
chosen  to  uphold  the  unfashionable  side  of  a  very  important 
question,  I  trust  that  I  shall  neither  be  considered  combative  nor 
reactionary. 

Shall  the  State's  constitution  forbid  governmental  appropria- 
tions toward  the  support  of  sectarian  institutions  ?  The  doctrine 
of  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  is  invoked  on  the  affirma- 
tive, that  of  individual  liberty  of  conscience  on  the  negative  side. 
The  alignment  of  the  Roman  clergy  in  opposition  has  made  the 
conflict  one  between  Catholicism  and  Protestantism  in  the  eyes 
of  some ;  between  liberalism  and  medievalism  in  the  eyes  of  others ; 
and  the  Jew,  especially,  is  naturally  drawn  to  what  appears  the 
more  liberal  side.  To  me,  however,  the  terms  liberality  of  re- 
ligious opinion  and  toleration  for  the  views  of  others  are  by  no 
means  synonymous,  and  I  believe  that  a  clear  distinction  can  be 
made  between  sectarian  work  which  should  not  receive  State  aid, 
and  that  which  should  be  so  supported,  both  for  the  sake  of  its 
beneficiaries  and  for  the  sake  of  the  State  itself. 

We  all  recognize  that  what  we  call  the  State  is  in  dual  relation- 
ship toward  the  individuals  that  compose  it.  On  the  one  hand  it 
exacts  allegiance  to  its  terms  of  association,  conformity  to  its  reg- 
ulations and  sacrifices  of  means,  comfort  or  even  life,  toward 
the  commonweal;  in  return,  it  promises  to  use  its  military  power 
to  repel  a  foreign  invasion,  its  police  power  to  restrain  the  crim- 
inal, its  equity  courts  to  maintain  his  rights  against  the  encroach- 
ment of  a  fellow-citizen  and  to  use  its  collective  power  to  shield 
his  individual  helplessness.  For  the  modern  State,  this  last  func- 
tion carries  with  it  the  duty  of  caring  for  the  individual,  when- 
ever causes  beyond  his  own  control  deprive  him  of  the  ability 


122  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

to  fend  for  himself.  The  socialist  demands  that  these  dual  rela- 
tions between  State  and  citizen  -shall  be  continuously  in  active 
operation ;  those  who  differ  from  him  believe  that  the  true  science 
of  government  leaves  as  much  freedom  as  possible  to  the  indi- 
vidual, stepping  in  only  when  he  is  transgressing  or  encroached 
upon.  Under  this  latter  doctrine,  however,  occasions  arise  when 
the  government  does  find  it  necessary  to  subordinate  the  indi- 
vidual to  the  direction  of  others,  through  the  agency  of  what  we 
call  public  institutions,  be  they  military,  educational,  eleemosyn- 
ary or  correctional.  The  critical  question  in  mind  is,  in  which 
of  its  two  functions  toward  the  individual  does  the  State  provide 
the  institution?  In  some  cases,  there  is  no  doubt,  the  army  arid 
navy  as  well  as  the  penal  institutions  are  organized  by  the  State 
for  its  collective  purposes  and  public  requirements  are  paramount 
to  the  preferences  of  the  individual;  they  must  be  absolutely 
under  public  official  control. 

The  maintenance  of  schools,  too,  is  a  duty  which  the  public 
owes  to  itself,  much  more  than  to  the  pupils;  this  is  universally 
recognized  in  our  various  school  laws,  especially  those  relating  to 
truancy.  The  proper  exercise  of  many  of  the  duties  of  citizen- 
ship presupposes  a  certain  education,  and  the  more  uniform  this 
elementary  education  can  be  made,  the  better  for  the  State.  If  I 
knew  how  to  accomplish  it  in  this  country,  I  would  see  every  pri- 
vate school  of  primary  and  grammar  grade  abolished  and  would 
allow  no  excuse  but  physical  disability  for  non-attendance  at  the 
public  school.  The  latter  would  be  strictly  non-sectarian;  but 
not  according  to  the  definition  of  the  law-giver  who  considers 
everybody  a  sectary  whose  faith  differs  from  his  own.  The  best 
justification  of  the  existence  of  parochial  schools  which  ever 
came  to  my  knowledge,  was  the  dismissal,  after  many  years  of 
service,  of  an  efficient  superintendent,  by  the  School  Board  of  a 
large  New  England  city,  for  the  crime  of  transferring  to  a  school 
in  the  most  fashionable  ward,  a  competent  teacher,  herself  a 
graduate  of  the  public  school  system,  who  happened  to  be  an 
Irish  Catholic! 

The  theory  that  teachings  in  a  school  must  necessarily  inculcate 
every  form  of  ethical,  moral  and  religious  instruction,  is  un- 
fortunately sufficiently  rampant  in  this  country  to  impair  seri- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  123 

ously  the  efficiency  of  the  institutions  themselves;  it  is  not  only 
likely  to  bring  other  qualifications  than  teaching  to  the  fore- 
ground in  the  selection  of  the  instructors,  but  it  is  also  likely  to 
promote  attempts  to  introduce  subjects  into  the  curriculum  which 
are  so  loosely  connected  with-  the  essential  branches  of  an  ele- 
mentary education  that  the  child  is  confused  and  one  of  the  chief 
objects  of  schooling— systematic  thinking— is  seriously  ob- 
structed. 

I  am  not  referring  particularly  to  the  so-called  fads  and  frills 
that  trouble  the  mind  of  the  old-fashioned  school  trustee;  but 
when  we  find  temperance  societies  seeking  to  promote  their  lauda- 
ble efforts  by  insisting  on  what  is  termed  ' '  scientific  teaching ' '  of 
the  detrimental  nature  of  alcohol,  or  when  we  find  patriotic 
societies  endeavoring  to  graft  a  special  course  in  civics  upon  the 
curriculum  for  young  boys  and  girls,  one  does  feel  as  if  the  com- 
mon school  was  being  employed  to  further  individual  hobbies 
rather  than  to  strengthen  the  intellectual  activity  of  a  child  in 
such  a  manner  that  it  will  be  able  to  cope  with  the  problems 
of  life  at  that  time  when  they  really  become  of  serious  import  in 
life.  I  suppose  that  a  time  will  come  when  the  right  of  even  the 
school  child  to  its  own  individuality  will  be  recognized,  and  when 
it  will  be  deemed  just  as  criminal  to  attempt  forcing  into  its  mind 
dogmas,  whether  religious,  political  or  even  scientific,  under  the 
guise  of  elementary  instruction,  as  we  now  consider  it  wrong  to 
force  political  or  religious  views  upon  a  man  as  a  condition  for 
granting  him  the  necessaries  of  life  in  the  moment  of  direst  need. 

The  experience  of  European  countries  has  shown  that  it  is  per- 
fectly feasible  to  maintain  public  schools  on  a  strictly  non-sec- 
tarian basis,  and  even  there  where  religious  teaching  is  supposed 
to  be  a  requisite  element  of  the  school  curriculum,  it  is  done  by 
special  religious  teachers  of  the  same  faith  with  each  group  of 
children,  leaving  the  secular  teacher  quite  free  from  any  such 
duties.  The  State,  therefore,  is  both  able  to  conduct  perfectly 
non-sectarian  schools,  and  owes  it  to  itself  to  control  in  all  re- 
spects the  fundamental  education  of  its  future  citizens,  because 
that  very  education  is  one  of  the  foundations  of  the  commonweal. 

The  State  stands,  however,  in  an  entirely  different  relation  to 
those  who  have  become  its  wards,  not  for  the  public  benefit,  but 


124  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

by  reason  of  their  personal  disability.  When  the  citizen  is  in  pos- 
session of  his  normal  strength,  he  expects  to  participate  in  the 
duties  which  the  State  demands  of  him,  and,  in  return,  he  is 
entitled  to  the  State's  protection  when  either  from  sickness  or 
unmerited  misfortune  he  has  become  helpless.  At  such  periods, 
the  State  has  no  longer  the  right  to  ask  what  return  it  is  to  re- 
ceive for  the  benefits  it  confers.  These  benefits  are  not  alms,  but 
are  a  part  of  the  implied  contract  between  the  individual  and 
the  public.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  theory  of  ancient  pa- 
ganism or  medieval  Christianity,  the  Jewish  view,  from  Biblical 
times,  has  never  swerved.  I  interpret  the  well-known  injunction, 
"Open  wide  thy  hand  unto  thy  brother,  for  the  poor  shall  not 
cease  out  of  the  land,"  not  only  as  a  mere  invitation  to  do  good, 
but  as  an  open-minded  recognition  of  the  fact  that  no  political 
or  economic  arrangement,  however  it  may  increase  the  average 
prosperity  of  a  people,  can  guard  the  individual  against  the  acci- 
dents of  poverty  and  disease.  But  when  such  afflictions  strike 
your  neighbor,  he  neither  becomes  subject  to  your  scorn  nor  to 
your  whims,  neither  your  inferior  nor  your  slave,  but  remains 
ethically  your  brother.  The  relief  of  distress  is  the  duty  of  man 
to  man,  and  it  is  to  be  practised  neither  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
moving a  painful  sight  from  one's  view— the  Greek  attitude— nor 
to  gain  peculiar  merit  in  the  sight  of  Heaven  for  one's  self— the 
medieval  Christian  attitude.  Judaism  prescribes  that  nothing 
which  is  done  while  aiding  the  distressed  shall  force  degradation 
upon  the  individual,  and  it  ought  to  be  the  duty  of  such  organ- 
izations as  this  National  Conference  to  uphold  above  everything 
else  this  doctrine  in  the  discussion  of  the  charitable  affairs  of  the 
nation. 

When  President  Roosevelt  the  other  day  issued  a  special  proc- 
lamation not  to  discriminate  against  the  Chinese  sufferers  from 
the  San  Francisco  earthquake,  many  must  have  felt  that  things 
had  come  to  an  awful  pass  if  humanity  could  not  be  trusted  to 
take  care  of  the  unfortunate  without  discrimination  of  race  or 
creed,  and  I  think  the  imputation  justly  resented  by  the  citizens 
of  California.  But  is  it  not  almost  as  bad  to  suggest  that,  at  a 
time  when  necessity  compels  a  man  to  seek  admission  to  a  hos- 
pital, he  should  be  forced  to  divest  himself  of  all  his  individuality 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  125 

and  put  himself  absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the  institution,  even 
in  matters  that  have  in  themselves  no  concern  with  his  sickness"; 
Is  it  not  rather  true  that,  at  such  times  when  his  sensibilities  are 
perhaps  overaccentuated,  everything  should  be  done  to  soothe 
them;  and  that  if  he  has  any  peculiar  views,  whether  religious 
or  otherwise,  which  do  not  interfere  with  the  happiness  of  his 
neighbors,  these  should  be  at  least  respected  so  long  as  he  has  not 
the  full  power  to  take  care  of  himself  ? 

The  principle,  it  appears  to  me,  which  deprecates  the  large 
orphan  asylum  in  favor  of  the  cottage  home,  in  order  that  the 
individuality  of  the  child  may  be  preserved  as  far  as  possible, 
should  assert  itself  to  a  still  greater  degree  where  the  adult  is 
concerned  whose  individuality  is  fully  developed,  and,  conse- 
quently, all  the  more  deserving  to  be  respected.  If,  therefore,  it 
is  a  comfort  to  him  to  know  that  he  is  living,  and,  if  necessary, 
dying  according  to  the  tenets  of  his  own  faith,  common  human- 
ity demands  that  this  comfort  shall  not  be  denied  him.  It  is  all 
very  well  to  suggest  that  a  State  institution  could  permit  of  such 
individual  treatment,  but  we  all  know  that  this  is  practically 
impossible.  Just  as  reform  legislation  usually  is  only  able  to 
substitute  a  bi-partisan  board  for  a  partisan  one,  because  the 
political  mind  is  unable  to  grasp  the  idea  of  absolute  non-parti- 
sanship, so  a  hospital  or  home  for  the  aged  could  only  be  made 
equally  acceptable  to  the  Protestant,  the  Jew  and  the  Catholic, 
by  cumbersome  division  into  religious  wards.  I  am  saying  this 
with  the  full  knowledge  that  the  statement  may  sound  reactionary 
and  that  hundreds,  nay,  thousands,  of  exceptions  may  be  pointed 
out ;  and,  nevertheless,  I  think  that  fuller  consideration  will  show 
that  these  exceptions  are  not  proper  ones.  Supposing  that  a  Jew 
falls  sick  while  sojourning  in  a  city  in  which  he  has  no  co- 
religionists; he  will,  of  course,  seek  a  general  hospital,  and  his 
treatment  will  be  so  humane  and  his  feelings  will  be  so  respected 
that  he  will  have  no  fault  to  find ;  but  should  he  learn  that  there 
existed  in  that  same  community  hundreds  who  could  have  readily 
provided  him  with  those  particular  spiritual  comforts  which 
he  naturally  had  to  forego  in  the  general  hospital,  his  feelings 
would  be  of  a  different  kind.  The  mere  fact  that  a  man  can  exist 
without  certain  comforts  is  in  itself  no  argument  for  depriving 


126  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

him  of  them.  Similarly,  the  possibility  of  properly  treating  peo- 
ple of  all  kinds  and  creeds  in  a  general  institution  does  not,  In 
itself,  preclude  that  some  of  the  finer  sensibilities  of  the  patient 
may  there  be  disregarded.  The  higher  ethical  standpoint  seems 
to  me  to  be  represented  by  the  existence  of  the  sectarian  hospital, 
old  folks '  home  or  orphan  asylum,  in  which  the  inmate  is  not  only 
granted  an  impassive  liberty  of  conscience,  but  also  enabled  to 
live  as  nearly  as  possible  in  consonance  with  those  customs  which 
his  traditions  prescribe. 

No  less  natural  is  it  that  a  sufficiently  numerous  foreign  colony, 
in  any  large  eity,  will  maintain  purely  social  clubs,  in  which  the 
native  tongue  of  its  members  is  spoken  and  the  domestic  customs 
of  the  old  home  are  preserved,  than  the  establishment  of  French, 
German  or  Scandinavian  hospitals  and  orphanages  in  the  great 
American  cities.  No  sane  man  sees  in  such  specifically  national 
organizations  any  evidence  of  hostility  toward  the  State  which 
shelters  their  supporters;  they  have  no  mission  excepting  the 
greater  comfort  that  home  customs  and  the  mother  tongue  can 
afford  those  whom  they  shelter — widely  differing  from  the 
schools  and  hospitals  maintained  under  American  auspices  in  the 
Orient,  whose  avowed  purpose  is  the  inculcation  -of  religious  and 
political  beliefs  upon  a  native  population  that  already  owns 
allegiance  to  other  systems.  I  think  that  the  very  fact  that  so 
large  a  percentage  of  the  American  population  is  interested  in 
missionary  institutions  abroad  may  occasion  the  view  that  every 
institution  which  is  maintained  under  a  sectarian  or  foreign 
name  partakes  itself  of  a  militant  character;  and  yet  there  is  a 
very  great  distinction  between  institutions  that  are  carried  on  for 
the  avowed  benefit  of  outsiders  and  those  which  largely  bear  the 
character  of  a  domestic  or  family  corporation. 

Leaving  aside  all  questions  of  religious  prejudice  or  propa- 
ganda, it  seems  to  the  best  interest  of  the  State  that  as  large  a 
percentage  as  possible  of  the  population  should  interest  itself  in 
philanthropic  work,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatsoever  that 
many  more  are  likely  to  enter  into  work  of  this  character,  if 
they  feel  a  natural  call  to  look  after  people  of  their  own  class, 
race  or  faith,  just  as  family  ties  are  supposed  to  lay  more  duties 
upon  the  individual  than  those  of  mere  humanity.  Indeed,  there 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  127 

are  other  than  purely  selfish  motives  in  this  view,  because  we 
naturally  feel  an  obligation  to  exert  ourselves  in  those  directions 
for  which  we  are  best  qualified.  It  will  be  surely  recognized  by 
everybody  that  persons  who  share  the  same  views  or  the  same 
conditions  understand  each  other's  nature  best.  A  State  insti- 
tution, therefore,  in  order  to  achieve  the  best  results  for  persons 
of  various  nationalities  or  faiths,  will  probably  be  forced  to  select 
its  employees  with  due  regard  to  these  principles;  the  State  in- 
stitution, instead  of  becoming  non-sectarian,  would  become  poly- 
sectarian.  Indeed,  there  is  a  danger  that  if  the  principle  be 
ignored,  there  Avould  be  a  special  inducement  for  the  injection  of 
religious  sectarianism  into  politics,  on  the  plea  that  the  control 
of  a  political  party  was  essential  for  the  safeguarding  of  the 
religious  interests  of  the  inmates  of  the  State  institution.  "What 
baleful  political  results  may  follow  the  governmental  exclusion 
of  all  but  the  dominant  religious  faction  from  State  institutions, 
may  be  well  inferred  from  a  study  of  the  Kultur  Kampf  which 
raged  in  Germany  during  the  administration  of  Prince  Bismarck. 

If,  then,  the  American  conditions  will  naturally  require  a 
recognition  of  the  different  sects  in  the  management  of  institu- 
tions, what  principle  is  violated  if  the  same  sects  are  recognized 
in  the  management  of  private  institutions?  The  private  charitable 
institution,  if  properly  managed,  is  certainly  at  least  as  efficient 
and  economical  as  the  public  one.  Governmental  inspection,  such 
as  is  provided  in  New  York  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  can 
eliminate  those  enterprises  which  are  fraudulent,  and  can  check 
abuses  even  more  efficiently  in  private  than  in  public  institutions. 
Our  governmental  machinery  is  so  complex  that  a  State  governor 
can  readily  nullify  the  influence  of  the  supervising  board  over 
the  executive  management  of  State  institutions.  But  it  is  much 
less  conceivable  that  the  private  charity  shall  similarly  escape  the 
results  of  unfavorable  criticism.  It  seems  to  be,  therefore,  a  most 
ideal  plan  that  institutions  should  be  managed  by  those  who  have 
a  direct  benevolent  interest  in  them,  but  that  the  supervision 
should  rest  with  the  State;  this,  I  think,  is  a  truism  in  charity 
work.  I  am  at  a  loss,  however,  to  find  why  distinctions  should  be 
made  in  the  motives  that  actuate  this  private  benevolence.  If 
one  person  feels  deeper  interest  in  children  and  wishes  to  con- 


128  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

tribute  toward  the  success  of  an  orphan  asylum,  this  is  permissi- 
ble in  the  eyes  of  all ;  or  he  may  prefer  a  hospital  for  the  cure  of 
certain  ills;  or,  being  a  German  by  descent,  he  might  prefer  an 
institution  in  which  German  was  the  language  of  the  inmates ;  or 
he  might  interest  himself  in  negroes,  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
whites.  The  State  is  to  be  allowed  to  contribute  toward  the  sup- 
port of  such  an  institution,  but  if  the  question  of  religious  faith 
enters,  then  a  barrier  is  immediately  to  be  raised.  It  appears  to 
me  that  this  is  absurd,  so  long  as  there  is  no  attempt  at  religious 
propaganda,  or  so  long  as  the  State  has  no  public  interest  in  the 
private  views  of  the  individual  managers,  since  these  institutions 
are  distinctly  intended  for  the  benefit  of  the  helpless,  from 
whom  the  State  has  nothing  to  expect  in  return  for  what  it 
grants.  It  is  true  that  a  Protestant  might  be  converted  to  Ca- 
tholicism in  a  hospital  managed  by  nuns,  while  no  missionary 
effort  could  convert  a  white  boy  into  a  negro,  if  he  were  placed 
in  a  colored  orphan  asylum.  But  the  sectarian  institution  should 
be  distinctly  maintained  for  the  benefit  of  the  adherents  of  its 
own  faith— in  recognition  of  the  religious  wants  of  these  people, 
not  as  a  means  of  increasing  the  power  of  the  sect  or  of  flattering 
the  vanity  of  its  devotees.  If  this  fundamental  principle  be  kept 
in  mind,  it  seems  to  me  that  a  very  easy  line  of  demarkation  can 
be  drawn  between  those  sectarian  institutions  which  should  de- 
serve State  support  and  those  which  are  to  be  constitutionally 
barred  from  receiving  it. 

It  must,  of  course,  be  understood  that  I  do  not  plead  for  State 
subventions  to  sectarian  institutions  because  they  are  sectarian; 
I  think  it  the  duty  of  those  interested  in  them  to  provide  all 
proper  facilities  out  of  their  own  means;  the  buildings,  at  least, 
and  the  general  administration  should  be  in  the  charge  of  the 
private  supporters.  But  if  the  State  then  contracts  to  pay  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  individual  inmate  no  more  than  it  would 
cost  to  take  care  of  him  in  the  public  institution,  it  is  difficult  to 
point  out  wherein  the  public  interest  is  suffering  any  detriment. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  tax-payer,  there  is  probably  an 
advantage,  since  he  is  not  called  upon  to  contribute  toward  the 
construction  and  equipment  of  the  home ;  and,  besides,  if  we  as- 
sume that  taxation  is  fairly  distributed  according  to  population, 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  129 

whatever  contributions  are  made  for  such  charitable  support 
may  be  supposed  to  come  out  of  the  pocket  of  one  who  shares  the 
religious  faith  of  the  beneficiary.  In  New  York  State,  I  believe 
that  this  practise  is  universally  recognized  in  respect  to  the  care 
of  dependent  children,  and,  whatever  criticism  may  be  made 
about  the  various  orphan  asylums  as  overgrown  institutions 
which  should  be  replaced  by  groups  of  smaller  ones,  no  one  will 
claim  that  the  moral  care  of  the  wards  is  inferior  to  that  which 
they  receive  in  a  public  institution;  that  their  physical  surround- 
ings are  less  comfortable ;  or  that  they  cost  the  State  as  much. 
Indeed,  one  of  the  strong  opponents  of  State  aid  to  sectarian  in- 
stitutions told  me  that  unpleasant  comment  was  being  created 
by  the  fact  that  the  wards  of  Jewish  orphan  asylums  appear  bet- 
ter nourished  and  more  comfortably  clothed  than  the  majority  of 
their  fellow  pupils  in  the  public  schools.  I  could  only  point  out 
to  this  lady  that  the  per  capita  cost  to  the  State  was  less  than  if 
they  were  maintained  in  a  public  orphan  asylum,  inasmuch  as 
the  weekly  stipend  by  the  city  was  based  upon  calculations  made 
for  public  institutions;  any  improvement  in  nourishment  and 
clothing  was,  therefore,  due  to  the  superior  management  in  the 
private  institution. 

If  these  facts  be  so,  the  question  resolves  itself  to  this:  Shall 
the  State  forego  the  advantages  of  effective  volunteer  service,  of 
economical  administration  and  of  a  scrupulous  safeguard  of  the 
liberty  of  conscience  of  the  individual  dependent  upon  its  care, 
in  order  that  the  semblance  of  State  recognition  of  different  relig- 
ions may  be  avoided  ?  If  not,  it  is  evident  that  better  results  can 
be  obtained  by  the  State  in  committing  as  many  as  possible  of  its 
wards  to  private  care,  so  long  as  the  expenses  involved  do  not 
exceed  those  required  for  their  support  in  governmental  institu- 
tions ;  and  that  an  additional  safeguard  is  created,  for  the  interest 
of  both  State  and  individual,  when  a  State  board  of  charities 
supervises  the  private  organization,  as  compared  with  its  helpless- 
ness in  correcting  public  abuse ;  that  the  very  object  of  prevent- 
ing conflict  between  State  and  church  is  best  met  by  removing, 
so  far  as  possible,  that  incentive  toward  injecting  religion  into 
politics,  which  the  desire  for  controlling  the  religion  of  the  de- 
pendents may  create.  Above  all,  however,  we  should  uphold  the 


130  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

inaxim  that  we  must  respect  the  sensibilities  of  our  fellow  men 
in  the  period  of  their  misfortune,  and  not  take  advantage  of 
their  temporary  helplessness  to  force  upon  them  conditions 
which  they  would  avoid,  if  in  the  fulness  of  their  strength. 

STATISTICS  OF  INSTITUTIONAL  MANAGEMENT 

HOMES  FOR  THE  AGED  AND  INFIRM. 
MICHEL  HEYMAN,  New  Orleans. 


JPVJ9  rnirn  Dipn  nyfc  ^sp 

"  Before  the  Hoary  Head  Thou  Shalt  Rise  and  Honor  the  Face 
of  the  Old."—  (Leviticus,  19th  Chapter,  32d  verse). 

True  Zedokoh  to  the  old  means  more  than  charity,  it  means 
justice;  and  justice,  in  this  instance,  means  more  than  food, 
shelter,  and  a  decent  burial  ;  it  means  respectful  and  loving  treat- 
ment in  every  requirement  of  their  existence.  The  whole  house- 
hold must  be  characterized  by  dignity  and  refinement. 

These  aged  men  and  women  should  be  made  to  feel  that  they 
are  not  paupers,  who  by  an  impelling  fate,  have  been  thrust 
upon  a  community  which,  begrudgingly,  must  feed  and  house 
them  to  the  end. 

I  recognize  at  a  glance,  when  entering  a  home  for  aged,  in  the 
faces  of  these  helpless  patriarchs  and  matriarchs—  whether  or 
not  the  grand  lesson  of  our  Torah.  "Thou  shalt  honor  the  face 
of  the  aged,  '  '  is  practiced  or  not. 

There  is  something  beautiful  in  the  happy  smile  of  old  people, 
and  something  unfathomably  sad  in  their  tears. 

These  old  people  in  our  homes  know  best  that  the  disadvantages 
under  which  they  suffer  are  not  of  their  own  make  ;  that  they  were 
once  useful  members  of  society;  and  having  become  weak  and 
helpless,  they  look  hopefully  for  a  few  years  of  peace.  and  hon- 
orable rest  at  the  hands  of  good  Jewish  men  and  noble  Jewish 
women,  in  a  Jewish  home. 

I  believe,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  these  few  words  I  have 
laid  down  are  the  foremost  principles,  that  should  guide  the  man- 
agement of  our  homes  for  aged  and  infirm. 

In  the  same  manner,  our  modern  social  science  has  at  last 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  131 

taught  us  that  it  is  not  right  to  herd  multitudes  of  children  to- 
gether in  palaces  of  stone  and  iron,  raising  them  like  soldiers, 
drilling  them  in  a  military  manner,  effacing  all  individuality  out 
of  their  characters— but  teaching  them  at  once  a  healthful  and 
workful  life,  housing  them  in  plain  homes,  and  turning  them 
loose  in  large  grounds,  for  play  and  romp— in  order  that  they 
may  enjoy  the  frolic  and  fun  of  youth. 

Then  I  think  that  we  are  taught  now,  that  the  life  of  the  aged 
must  not  be  a  dreary  desert  of  idleness  and  ennui,  but,  if  possi- 
ble, should  be  led  on  to  something  useful  and  practical,  in  order 
to  season  their  ebbing  days  with  the  blessings  of  fruitful  occu- 
pation. 

All  the  trouble  and  all  the  restlessness  in  our  Homes  for  the 
Aged  is  caused  by  the  idleness  of  the  inmates.  Agitators  of  both 
sexes  have  only  an  opportunity  of  forming  coteries  of  dis- 
content among  the  idlers,  and  not  among  people  who  are  able  to 
comfort  the  loneliness  of  institution  life.  The  transition  from 
one  sphere  into  another,  from  work  to  idleness,  brings  about  a 
dangerous  period  in  the  lives  of  the  individuals.  It  is  not  so  easy, 
as  people  generally  believe,  "to  do  nothing."  Here  I  may 
quote  the  old  German  adage.  "Miissiggang  ist  aller  Laster 
Anf ang. ' '  and  I  may  also  quote  from  the  last  report  of  District 
Grand  Lodge  No.  1,  I.  O.  O.  B.  (Yonkers),  Page  83:  "The  spirit 
of  unrest  occasionally  pervades  among  a  few,  which  can  only  be 
attributed  to  lack  of  occupation." 

Nothing  prevents  old  people  from  planting  a  few  flowers  of 
their  choice,  even  a  few  vegetables  and  trees,  if  our  institutions 
are  located  in  the  country — and  the  unrest  spoken  of  in  the  above 
report  will  stop. 

I  solemnly  protest  against  the  unwarranted  usage  of  building 
old  peoples'  homes  on  the  same  ground  where  hospitals  are 
reared.  That  is  a  charity,  with  crape  at  the  door.  Our  old  people 
should  be  removed,  not  only  physically  from  all  that  harasses 
them  in  the  life  outside,  but  they  should  also  be  protected  from 
all  mental  troubles  and  worries ;  they  should  not  be  surrounded 
by  suffering  sick  people,  neither  hear  the  groans  of  the  dying. 

Light,   love,   trees   and  flowers,   health   and   comfort,   and   a 


132  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

little  pleasant  work  should  be  the  pillars  upon  which  the  Homes 
for  the  Aged  and  Infirm  must  rest. 

There  seems  to  be  an  opinion  among  a  great  many  that  every- 
body can  manage  such  an  institution,  but  it  takes  an  extra- 
ordinary man  whose  wife  must  be  a  good  housekeeper  and  a 
fair  cook,  while  the  husband  must  be  able  to  read  prayers  twice 
a  week.  Without  being  too  severe,  they  must  be  strict  enough  to 
keep  in  good  order  and  discipline  those  whom  their  advanced 
years  have  made  unruly  or  cranky.  Managers,  men  or  women, 
must  possess,  above  all,  a  thorough  comprehension  of  human  na- 
ture, must  be  trained  in  social  science,  must  be  able  to  stand  on 
the  level  of  their  wards,  who  never  will  have  confidence  in  men 
or  women,  who  walk  by  them  with  a  mien  of  a  Prussian  corporal, 
giving  them  short  commands,  impressing  authority  with  a  ven- 
geance. 

Old  people  can  be  properly  managed,  without  knowing  or 
feeling  it— and  the  best  results  are  attained  by  him  who  above  all 
has  a  big  heart  in  his  bosom,  trying  to  understand  his  aged  wards, 
not  from  his  but  from  their  standpoint.  It  is  a  gigantic  mistake 
to  believe  that  aged  people  can  be  made  happy  by  trying  to  train 
anew  their  character;  their  views  are  formed.  Rules  must  be 
obeyed  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  to  accomplish  it  peacefully 
proves  the  talent  and  ambition  of  the  Superintendent. 

I  object  to  punishing  old  people  by  depriving  them  of  luxuries 
or  comforts;  for  this  has  no  effect  on  them  and  embitters  them 
beyond  measure,  growing  finally  into  serious  obstacles  in  the 
management  of  the  whole  aged  family. 

Libraries  and  amusements  are  great  needs,  and  should  be 
provided  in  a  most  intelligent  manner.  No  libraries  with  a 
tremendous  intellectual  apparatus  should  be  installed,  where 
classics,  beautifully  bound,  are  placed  in  evidence— not  for  the 
inmates— but  for  the  occasional  visitor,  who  looks  and  admires 
their  fine  buildings.  We  need  for  the  aged  people  some  daily 
papers,  magazines  and  books  which  suit  their  taste.  The  aged 
people  care  more  for  entertainment  than  for  instruction;  they 
like  to  read  short  articles,  short  stories  and  enjoy  long  naps. 

Occasional  entertainments  are  of  great  value,  tending  toward 
good  government  and  happy  life.  Above  all,  music  is  a  great  factor 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  133 

— good  music,  well  rendered.  The  experienced  manager  knows 
how  often  the  old  people  will  enjoy  each  performance ;  as  a  rule, 
they  look  forward  with  delight  to  a  good  entertainment.  But  do 
not  think  that  everything  is  good  enough  for  the  old  people;  be- 
ware of  the  artist  that  can  be  heard  nowhere  except  in  asylums, 
and  to  whom  no  one  would  listen,  if  it  were  to  cost  one  cent;  a 
stumbling  pianist,  a  shrieking  artist,  frightens  the  poor  old 
people  with  the  ' '  Grandfather 's  Clock, "  or  a  violinist  that  would 
set  the  teeth  of  an  elephant  on  edge.  All  this  must  be  avoided, 
and  only  elevated  and  musically  beautiful  entertainments  should 
be  provided. 

In  1897  I  read  a  paper  on  Jewish  Child  Saving  in  the  United 
States  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Corrections,  giving  full  statistics  in  the  matter. 

I  have  tried  to  get  correct  statistics  for  the  Aged  and  Infirm,  by 
correspondence  with  the  different  institutions,  but  have  not  suc- 
ceeded, as  most  of  the  reports  are  incomplete  or  mixed  up  with 
other  institutions,  such  as  hospitals  or  orphan  asylums. 

Annexed  to  this  report  there  is  a  table  of  statistics  which  has 
to  be  completed  by  somebody  else,  as  it  seems  to  me  that  a  Na- 
tional Association  like  ours  should  always  have  on  file  all  in- 
formation necessary  concerning  institutions. 

The  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  published  last  year 
a  report  of  the  Benevolent  Institution  of  1904  which  is  however 
not  complete  or  entirely  correct. 

STATISTICS    OF    JEWISH     CHILD-CARING     INSTITU- 
TIONS. 

SOLOMON  LOWENSTEIN,  Superintendent  of  the  Hebrew7 
Orphan  Asylum  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

The  position  of  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities 
with  regard  to  the  care  of  dependent  children  is  too  well  known 
to  need  extensive  recapitulation  here.  At  its  first  Conference 
in  Chicago  and  most  particularly  at  those  in  Detroit  and  New- 
York  the  reports  of  its  Children's  Committee  were  strongly  in 
favor  of  the  fullest  development  of  the  placing-out  system  in  its 


134  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

various  forms.  Dr.  Bernstein's  excellent  paper  at  this  Confer- 
ence has  revealed  to  you  the  large  work  along  these  lines  con- 
ducted in  New  York  as  a  direct  result  of  the  original  discussion 
in  this  Conference  and  the  still  larger  work  possible  in  the 
country  at  large.  Yet  when  the  largest  plans  of  the  advocates  of 
this  system  (among  whom,  I  take  it,  all  of  us  are  enrolled)  will 
have  been  realized,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  great  bulk 
of  Jewish  dependent  children  will  still  be  cared  for  by  the  in- 
stitution. It  would  appear  therefore  to  be  highly  desirable  that 
a  careful  investigation  be  made  of  actual  conditions  prevailing  in 
our  institutions,  to  learn  wherein  they  are  defective  and  wherein 
they  are  doing  wisely  and  well  and  by  comparison  of  their  efforts 
to  place  at  the  disposal  of  all  the  best  features  of  the  work  of 
each. 

For  the  purpose  of  acquiring  this  information  inquiries  were 
sent  to  the  superintendents  of  all  the  prominent  child-caring  insti- 
tutions (Jewish)  of  the  country.  The  thanks  of  the  writer  are 
due  to  the  superintendents  of  the  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian 
Society,  of  New  York;  the  Jewish  Orphan  Asylum,  of  Cleve- 
land ;  the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of  Brooklyn ;  the  Jewish  Or- 
phan Asylum,  of  New  Orleans ;  the  Hebrew  Orphan 's  Home,  of 
Atlanta;  the  Hebrew  Infant  Asylum,  of  New  York;  the  Jewish 
Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asylum,  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  He- 
brew Orphans'  Home,  of  Philadelphia,  for  their  valuable  replies. 
No  replies  were  received  from  the  important  institutions  located 
in  Chicago,  Newark,  Baltimore,  San  Francisco  and  Rochester. 
Reports  were  also  received  from  the  Leopold  Morse  Home,  of 
Mattapan,  Mass.,  and  the  Gusky  Home  in  Pittsburg,  but  the  num- 
ber of  children  in  each  is  so  small  as  to  put  them  in  a  separate 
class  from  the  institutions  herein  considered.  The  facts  adduced 
therefore  cannot  be  considered  exhaustive  nor  for  reasons  to  be 
explained  later  can  they  be  claimed  to  be  definite  or  statistically 
of  great  scientific  value.  For  the  opinions  expressed  the  writer 
alone,  of  course,  is  responsible. 

In  considering  children's  institutions  the  factor  of  greatest 
interest  for  statistical  purposes  is  naturally  the  children  them- 
selves. In  the  nine  institutions  which  we  are  studying  (viz., 
the  eight  above  mentioned  and  the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.'  135 

New  York)  is  a  total  population  of  3,183  souls.  These  institu- 
tions may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  groups  of  large  and  small 
institutions  upon  a  basis  of  population,  the  first  group  consisting 
of  the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of  New  York ;  the  Hebrew  Shel- 
tering Guardian  Society,  of  New  York ;  the  Jewish  Orphan  Asy- 
lum, of  Cleveland,  and  the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of  Brooklyn, 
with  respective  populations  of  1,010,  746,  500,  and  312,  and  the 
second  group,  Jewish  Orphan  Asylum  of  New  Orleans,  157 ; 
Jewish  Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asylum,  Philadelphia,  140; 
Hebrew  Infant  Asylum,  of  New  York,  151;  Hebrew  Orphans' 
Home,  of  Atlanta,  89;  Hebrew  Orphans'  Home,  Philadelphia. 
78. 

Of  the  3,183  children,  1,846  or  almost  58%  are  boys.  1,337  or 
a  little  more  than  42%  are  girls.  These  general  percentages  also 
indicate  approximately  the  proportionate  number  of  either  sex 
in  each  institution.  Of  the  entire  population  (discrepancy  in 
additions  due  to  approximate  figures  and  Hebrew  Infant  Asylum 
omitted)  only  403  or  a  trifle  more  than  13%  are  full  orphans,  the 
great  mass  of  the  inmates,  2,057  in  number,  more  than  67%,  arc 
half -orphans,  and  582  or  about  19%  are  destitute  or  abandoned 
children,  having  both  parents  living.  Of  this  latter  number,  311 
or  over  53%  are  in  the  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian  Society,  of 
New  York,  an  institution  which  in  its  origin  was  particularly  de- 
signed to  care  for  this  class  of  children;  112=19%  in  the  He- 
brew Orphan  Asylum,  of  New  York,  and  78=11%  in  the  Brook- 
lyn Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum.  Thus  83%  of  this  class  of  Jewish 
children  receiving  institutional  treatment  are  to  be  found  in  the 
homes  of  Greater  New  York.  In  age  the  children  are  grouped 
as  follows:  182  or  5%  under  5  years.  Of  these  151  or  over  83% 
are  in  the  institution  of  the  Hebrew  Infant  Asylum  of  New  York. 
2,802=88%  of  the  total  population  are  of  school  age— that  is 
between  the  ages  of  5  and  14  years,  and  222  or  6%  are  above  14. 

Entrance  conditions  in  the  various  homes  are  essentially  simi- 
lar; barring  the  Infant  Asylum,  whose  name  indicates  its  char- 
acter, most  of  the  institutions  accept  full  and  half-orphan  chil- 
dren between  the  ages  of  5  and  12  upon  direct  application  to  the 
institution  or  local  representatives.  In  New  York  State  all 
Jewish  institutions  receive  in  addition  children  committed  by 


136  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

public  relief  officers  and  committing  magistrates.  All  institu- 
tions have  residential  requirements  which,  however,  differ  in 
time.  Discharge  likewise,  in  the  majority  of  cases  is  effected 
similarly  by  all  the  institutions— viz.,  upon  the  completion  of  the 
regular  school  term,  by  return  to  relatives,  or  securing  employ- 
ment and  proper  homes  for  such  children  as  have  no  natural 
protectors.  Attempt  was  made  to  secure  some  statement  as  to  the 
average  length  of  residence  in  the  institutions,  but  with  no  very 
satisfactory  result.  Replies  furnished— too  few  however  to  be  of 
definite  value— give  an  average  ranging  from  5  to  8  years. 

These  figures  deserve  some  comment  in  addition  to  their  mere 
statement.  I  would  say,  however,  at  the  outset  of  the  discussion 
that  I  do  not  believe  it  to  be  the  desire  of  this  Conference  that 
matter  already  carefully  discussed  should  be  unnecessarily 
repeated.  Without,  therefore,  going  into  details  of  descrip- 
tion, explanation  or  justification  I  would  state  that  in  all  the  re- 
marks I  follow  I  shall  favor  the  construction  of  an  insti- 
tution upon  the  cottage  plan  with  methods  generally  in 
harmony  with  the  conditions  described  in  his  paper  at  the  New 
York  Conference  by  Michel  Heyman,  on  "The  Ideal  Orphan 
Home"  and  actually  practiced  at  such  institutions  as  the  New 
York  Orphan  Asylum  at  Hastings  and  the  New  York  Juvenile 
Asylum  at  Chauncey.  I  mention  this  particularly  at  this  point 
because  of  its  relation  to  the  question  of  population.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  institutions  which  I  mentioned  above  as 
comprising  the  first  group  are  by  far  too  large  under  present 
conditions.  No  institution  can  do  full  justice  to  the  individual 
child  when  he  is  but  one  of  a  thousand  or  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  or  five  hundred  or  even  three  hundred  under  one  roof. 
And  I  say  this  mindful  of  the  magnificent  personalities  of  the 
men.  some  of  whom  are  still  with  us,  who  have  attempted  this 
gigantic  task  and  through  whose  merits  alone  failure  and  calam- 
ity have  been  avoided.  With  the  adoption  of  the  cottage  plan, 
however,  mere  size  ceases  to  be  a  matter  of  great  concern,  merely 
augmenting  the  difficulty  of  securing  suitable  persons  to  conduct 
the  cottages.  Under  present  conditions,  however,  there  is  little 
hope  for  immediate  improvement.  With  the  exception  of  the 
Cleveland  Asylum,  the  unwieldy  institutions  are  all  in  New  York 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  137 

City  and  the  concentration  of  Jewish  population  there  and  the 
continued  immigration  indicate  no  prospect  of  an  early  reduction 
of  numbers.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible,  to  pronounce  definitely, 
but  it  is  quite  likely  that  in  that  city  the  subvention  of  institu- 
tions from  public  funds  conduces  to  a  laxity  of  admission  con- 
ditions and  continuance  of  residence  which  helps  to  swell  the 
number  of  inmates. 

The  significance  of  the  figures  cited  above  in  relation  to  the 
problem  of  boarding  or  placing-out  should  not  be  overlooked. 
Only  13 %  of  the  children  are  full  orphans;  a  certain  percentage 
of  these,  of  course,  are  above  ten  years  of  age— the  limit  placed 
by  Dr.  Bernstein  upon  placing  out  in  free  homes,  so  that  assum- 
ing the  placing  out  of  all  full  orphans,  the  largest  part  of  the 
institution's  population  must  still  be  reckoned  with.  While  no 
definite  figures  were  secured  on  this  question  it  may  be  safely 
asserted  that  of  the  67%  of  half -orphan  children,  a  considerable 
majority  are  deprived  of  the  father.  Herein  as  was  stated  by 
Mr.  Senior  at  the  New  York  Conference  (and  as  practiced  by 
the  Cincinnati  organization)  lies  the  chief  hope  of  reduction  of 
institutional  population.  We  are  all  now  agreed  that  the  good 
mother  should  not  be  deprived  of  her  children  or  even  be 
encouraged  in  her  desire  to  place  them  in  an  institution  for  the 
supposed  advantages  of  better  education  and  firmer  disciplinary 
control.  But,  of  course,  no  large  national  machinery  is  needed 
for  this  purpose.  The  orphan  asylums  by  means  of  proper  relief 
funds  and  the  local  relief  societies  by  efficient  co-operation  can, 
as  has  been  proved  by  Cincinnati  and  to  a  large  degree  in  New 
York,  solve  this  question  unaidedv 

That  the  average  length  of  residence— under  ideal  conditions — 
should  be  materially  prolonged  despite  the  cry  of  institutionaliz- 
ing the  child  is  my  firm  conviction.  I  shall,  however,  re- 
vert to  this  more  at  length  in  the  discussion  of  the  educational 
statistics  elicited. 

The  fact  that  over  88%  of  the  children  in  institutions  are  be- 
tween the  ages  of  five  and  fourteen  years  indicates  at  once  the 
status  of  the  institution  as  an  educational  problem.  This  prob- 
lem has  not  yet  been  solved  by  our  institutions  and  its  proper 
solution  will  and  must  determine  the  decision  for  or  against  them. 


138  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

Of  the  eight  institutions  before  us  (omitting  the  Hebrew  Infant 
Asylum)  six,  viz.,  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of  New  York;  He- 
brew Sheltering  Guardian  Society,  of  New  York;  Hebrew  Or- 
phan Asylum,  of  Brooklyn ;  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of  Atlanta, 
and  the  two  Philadelphia  institutions  send  their  children  to  the 
public  schools.  In  the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of  New  York,  the 
public  school  classes  up  to  the  sixth  grammar  grade  are  conducted 
in  the  school  rooms  of  the  institution.  Two  of  these,  Hebrew  Or- 
phan Asylum,  of  Brooklyn,  and  Jewish  Foster  Home  and  Orphan 
Asylum,  of  Philadelphia,  conduct  some  classes  in  their  own  build- 
ings, presumably  for  younger  children.  Only  two — the  Jewish 
Orphan  Asylum,  of  Cleveland,  Dr.  S.  Wolfenstein,  superintend- 
ent, and  the  Jewish  Orphan  Asylum,  of  New  Orleans,  Mr.  Michel 
Heyman,  superintendent,  maintain  their  own  schools.  I  have  men- 
tioned the  names  of  these  two  not  for  purpose  of  invidious  com- 
parison, but  because  these  two  men,  pioneers  among  institutional 
managers  of  this  country,  whose  personalities  have  made  their 
institutions  what  they  are,  have,  I  believe  wisely,  despite  the  ap- 
parent majority  against  them,  held  fast  to  the  institutional  school 
and  kept  the  education  of  their  wards  within  their  own  hands.  I 
would  not  be  misunderstood  in  this  connection.  I  speak  now  not  of 
ideal  conditions  under  the  cottage  plan  amid  rural  surroundings. 
The  general  adoption  of  that  plan  would  make  necessary  the  re- 
establishment  of  institutional  schools  because  of  a  lack  of  adequate 
public  school  facilities  in  the  neighborhood.  But  now,  under 
present  conditions,  with  our  institutions  located  within  the  limits 
of  the  great  cities,  with  all  the  advantages  of  large  public  school 
facilities  I  believe  a  good  institutional  school  to  be  superior.  And 
here  I  would  obviate  the  possibility  of  another  misconception.  I 
take  this  position  in  no  disparagement  of  the  public  school  system, 
though  I  am  not,  perhaps,  alone  in  the  belief  that  this  is  suscepti- 
ble of  very  decided  improvement  in  most  of  our  cities.  I  am  awar<> 
and  fully  convinced  that  in  a  democracy  such  as  ours,  theoretically 
at  least  and  in  many  respects  practically,  a  system  of  com- 
mon public  education  is  both  desirable  and  necessary.  But  the 
public  schools  are  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  normal  children, 
and  children  in  an  institution  are  not  and  never  can  be  in  entirely 
normal  relationship  to  the  world  and  its  life  so  long  as  they  are 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  139 

in  the  institution.  The  institution  should  then  supply  these 
deficiencies  and  nowhere  else  can  this  be  done  so  easily,  so  appro- 
priately and  so  efficiently  as  in  the  classroom.  I  do  not  under- 
value the  desirability  of  having  the  children  leave  the  walls  of 
the  home  daily,  to  mingle  with  their  fellows  of  the  outside,  to 
learn  from  them  the  lessons  not  learned  in  school,  to  rub  up 
against  their  prejudices,  to  overcome  their  dislikes,  to  compete 
with  them  in  all  the  life  of  the  school,  to  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  their  different  environment  and  its  resultant  variety 
of  view  and  expression.  All  these  are  highly  valuable  and  I 
should  be  the  last  to  desire  to  lose  them,  but  I  believe  they  can 
be  attained  in  other  ways.  You  were  told  of  some  of  the  defects 
of  institutional  life  at  the  best,  of  the  difficulty  of  the  child's 
acquiring  an  idea  of  money  values  and  all  the  small  economies 
and  management  of  home  finance,  of  the  inadaptibility  of  the 
institutional  child  to  all  normal  life  relationships.  These  are 
defects  which  a  proper  educational  system  devised  for  the  child 
of  the  institution,  caring  for  his  needs  and  based  upon  his  life, 
would  easily  remedy  and  which  the  public  school  cannot  effect 
in  a  large  degree  because  its  rigid  curriculum  is  devised  for  all 
and  not  for  special  exceptions.  I  assume,  of  course,  that  the  in- 
stitutional school  shall  be  conducted  upon  the  highest  plane,  pay- 
ing good  salaries  and  attempting  to  secure  a  high  grade  school 
principal  and  first-class  teachers  equipped  with  the  best  modern 
educational  methods.  Then  the  life  of  the  institutional  child 
could  be  made  a  well-rounded  whole  with  all  his  needs  met  and 
a  beginning  equipment  for  life  designed  especially  to  prepare 
him  for  the  task  that  lies  before  him.  Manual  training  should 
play  a  large  part  in  his  education.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the 
only  Jewish  institutions  laying  large  stress  on  manual  training 
are  the  two  conducting  their  own  school  systems.  They  each 
have  a  complete  manual  training  school.  Manual  training  in 
wood  working  is  also  supplied  by  the  two  larger  New  York  insti- 
tutions. But  of  prime  importance  in  the  institutional  school 
should  be  industrial  training.  It  is  an  unnecessary  truism  to 
state  that  our  children  come  from  the  poor  classes  and  that 
to  the  laboring  classes  in  almost  all  cases  they  will  return.  It  is 
our  duty  to  see  that  they  go  forth  with  something  more  than 


140  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

their  inheritance  from  their  fathers.  We  ought  to  put  into  them 
the  means  of  earning,  not  only  when  they  leave  us  but  throughout 
their  lives,  a  good  livelihood.  It  is  easy  in  a  large  city  to  place 
the  graduates  of  a  well  conducted  asylum  in  offices,  stores,  shops 
and  factories.  The  demand  for  boys  particularly  is  always 
greater  than  the  supply,  but  such  positions  while  very  good  as 
beginnings  offer  no  assurance  of  permanent  employment  or  pro- 
motion. All  of  our  institutions  at  present  do  some  industrial 
work.  Probably  all  offer  instruction  in  stenography  and  type- 
writing. Bookkeeping,  telegraphy  and  printing  are  other  occu- 
pations taught.  Sewing,  cooking  and  household  work  are  gen- 
erally taught  in  the  female  departments.  All  these  and  their 
similar  activities  should  be  much  more  largely  developed  and 
made  part  of  the  regular  institutional  school  course,  at  proper 
hours,  when  the  minds  and  bodies  are  fresh,  and  not  as  must  now 
be  too  often  the  case,  under  the  makeshift  combination  of  public 
school  and  home  instruction,  after  both  are  wearied  by  the  com- 
pletion of  the  regular  day  school  work.  And  it  is  because  of  the 
need  of  this  industrial  training  that  I  would  advocate — under 
improved  conditions — the  extension  of  the  length  of  institutional 
residence  where  the  institution  alone  must  prepare  the  ward — un- 
aided— for  life.  The  average  child  of  14  or  15,  upon  graduation 
from  public  school,  is  not  physically  sufficiently  mature  to  take 
his  place  in  the  trades ;  and  in  the  more  intellectual  trades,  e.  g. 
stenography,  is  not  sufficiently  mature  mentally.  He  needs  the 
increased  strength  and  power  that  will  come  to  him  in  a  year  or 
two.  To-day  with  the  constant  press  of  new  admissions,  with 
undesirable  results  arising  from  the  close  contact  of  masses  of 
older  with  masses  of  younger  children,  with  the  tendency  (in- 
evitable) to  the  routine  and  machine  like  activity  of  a  large  in- 
stitution, longer  retention  is  in  most  instances  inadvisable,  but 
in  my  judgment  our  present  premature  pushing  of  unprepared 
children  upon  the  world  is  economically,  socially,  and  morally 
wrong. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  leave  the  impression  that  nothing  is  done 
by  the  institutions  for  post-graduate  work,  if  I  may  borrow  the 
term.  The  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  of  New  York,  has  the 
Emanuel  Lehman  Provident  Trust  Fund  of  $100,000  for  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  141 

education  in  trades  or  professions  of  such  wards  as  may  be  ad- 
judged entitled  to  such  aid.  It  also  has  a  number  of  smaller 
funds  of  a  similar  nature  and  much  work  is  done  along  these 
lines.  The  Hebrew  Sheltering  Guardian  Society  maintains  sev- 
eral scholarships  netting  $150  per  annum;  the  Educational 
League  performs  a  similar  service  for  the  graduates  of  the 
Jewish  Orphan  Asylum,  of  Cleveland.  In  this  city  the  Pfalzer 
Fund  of  $1,600  provides  training  for  girls  from  the  Jewish 
Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asylum.  But  this,  so  far  as  the  facts 
furnished  me  indicate,  is  all. 

Another  matter  in  connection  with  the  education  of  our  chil- 
dren. All  our  institutions  furnish  religious  instruction.  Serv- 
ices are  regularly  held  in  all  on  Sabbath  and  Holy  Days,  in  some 
daily.  Religious  schools  are  conducted  in  all.  Now  in  a  Jewish 
institution  there  should  be  no  real  reason  for  thus  divorcing 
religious  instruction  from  the  daily  life  of  the  child— making  it 
something  distinct  and  for  special  consumption.  It  ought  to  be 
part  of  his  daily  life,  part  of  his  regular  instruction — of  at 
least  equal  importance  with  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic. 
The  instructors  should  be  the  best  and  the  possibility  for  spiritual 
uplift  is  unlimited.  So,  too,  with  the  instruction  in  Hebrew 
which  all  give.  Our  present  methods  are  a  disgrace  to  us.  One 
man  in  Baltimore  has  shown  us  what  can  be  done  in  this  direction. 
With  the  resources  at  our  command  we  should  be  able  to  make 
the  language  of  our  people  and  its  Bible  a  real  source  of  inspira- 
tion to  our  children  and  one  need  not  be  an  adherent  of  any  cult 
or  "ism"  to  wish  this  consummation  most  devoutly  in  every  Jew- 
ish institution  in  the  land. 

To  return  for  a  moment  to  the  industrial  training,  we  should 
not  overlook  the  moral  and  educational  value  of  the  assistance 
rendered  in  all  institutions  in  the  work  of  the  home— in  the  bed- 
rooms and  dining  rooms,  in  the  kitchen  and  laundry,  in  the  clean- 
ing of  rooms  and  yards  and  in  the  repairing  of  clothing,  darning 
of  stockings,  etc. 

Another  matter  concerning  which  information  was  sought, 
closely  related  to  the  education  of  the  children  and  of  almost 
equal  importance,  is  the  question  of  social  activities,  of  enter- 
tainment and  amusement.  Replies  indicate  that  in  most  institu- 


142  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

tions  this  is  most  unsystematically  provided,  occasional,  and  in 
large  part  provided  by  the  children  themselves.  Reference  was 
made  in  several  of  the  papers  to  the  relationship  between  the 
cheap  amusement  centers  and  youthful  delinquency.  How  are  we 
to  expect  that  children  will  be  attracted  to  the  better  amusement 
furnished  by  the  settlement  and  similar  agencies  if  they  have  had 
no  previous  aesthetic  training.  Therefore,  it  would  appear  that 
if  we  would  not  only  protect  our  wards  but  also  afford  them 
positive  cultural  advantages  which  whatever  be  their  industrial 
condition  will  furnish  them  with  an  educated  taste  for  the  best 
things  in  literature,  art,  music,  etc.,  we  must  begin  early  and 
make  it  a  matter  of  careful  thought  and  planning.  The  library 
which  all  the  institutions  conduct  is,  of  course,  of  first  import- 
ance. Clubs  are  a  helpful  expedient.  The  Hebrew  Sheltering 
Guardian  Society,  of  New  York,  is  at  present  making  a  most  in- 
teresting experiment  in  graded  club  work  under  special  supervi- 
sion. Lectures,  visits  to  the  theatre,  art  museums,  concerts,  mu- 
seums of  natural  history,  etc.,  when  available  should  be 
frequently  and  systematically  made.  The  Hebrew  Orphan 
Asylum,  of  New  York,  has  made  arrangements  with  the 
Evening  Lectures  Department  of  the  Public  Schools  whereby 
high  grade  lectures  were  regularly  given  to  the  children  during 
the  past  winter.  They  aroused  great  interest  and  enthusiasm 
among  the  children  and  will  be  continued  in  larger  number  next 
year.  The  importance  of  music  as  a  cultural  force  in  the  lives  of 
our  children  cannot  be  over-estimated.  Four  institutions  report 
brass  bands,  five  have  choirs  for  religious  services  and  two  have 
special  musical  instruction  in  chorus  work  for  girls.  Several  in- 
stitutions give  summer  outings  and  these  can  be  made  of  much 
value  if  visits  to  places  of  local,  historical,  civic  or  industrial  in- 
terest take  the  place  of  large  outings  merely  for  picnic  purposes. 
Every  effort  ought  to  be  made  to  give  the  institution  child  a 
thorough  acquaintance  with  his  own  city.  Holiday  entertain- 
ments, e.  g.,  Purim  and  Hanukah,  should  be  both  religious  and 
social  celebrations  of  great  importance. 

It  is  almost  useless  to  state  that  the  health  of  the  children  is 
well  cared  for.  The  dietaries  submitted  are  adequate,  both  nour- 
ishment and  taste  being  regarded.  Three  institutions  have  reg- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  143 

ular  physicians  visiting  daily,  in  others  physicians  are  ready  at 
call.  There  is,  however,  considerable  divergence  as  to  regular 
examination  of  children.  Two  institutions  make  regular  exam- 
inations at  stated  intervals,  of  scalp,  eyes,  skin  and  teeth.  The 
others  report  that  the  children  are  under  constant  supervision — 
which  may  mean  much  or  little.  One  institution,  the  Hebrew 
Sheltering  Guardian  Society,  keeps  regular  written  records  of 
weight  and  measurements  taken  semi-annually — a  proceeding 
worthy  of  emulation.  Five  institutions  have  dentists  regularly 
employed  and  examining  teeth  of  all  children  at  regular  in- 
tervals. All  the  institutions  conduct  hospitals,  of  which,  how- 
ever, only  four  are  in  separate  buildings;  four  do  not  care  for 
contagious  diseases. 

Few  of  the  institutions  attempt  to  place  out  children  in  board. 
The  work  of  New  York  was  detailed  in  yesterday's  report.  In  ad- 
dition the  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum  conducts  its  own  work 
through  its  own  agent,  placing  children  in  boarding  homes  and 
subsidizing  mothers.  Few  of  the  institutions  outside  of  New 
York  seem  to  have  developed  this  feature  of  their  work. 

Financial  statistics  most  easily  obtained  and  in  largest  number 
are  at  hand,  but  I  shall  not  in  the  present  paper  attempt  to  use 
them.  Diverse  systems  of  accounts,  contradictory  grouping  of 
different  items  of  income  and  expenditure,  entire  lack  of  uni- 
formity except  in  the  most  obvious  facts  make  the  handling  of 
these  figures  the  proper  task  of  the  trained  statistician.  I  under- 
stand that  your  committee  on  resolutions  is  considering  the 
recommendation  of  a  committee  on  statistics.  This  appears  to  me 
to  be  most  important.  A  mass  of  information  unsystematized  and 
un  correlated  is  hidden  in  these  figures  which  might  be  of  great 
interest  and  value  to  the  entire  Jewish  community  of  the  country 
if  properly  interpreted. 

It  should  be  made  a  condition  of  the  work  of  all  future  appli- 
cants for  Conference  Scholarships  that  full  training  in  statistics 
be  taken.  In  conclusion  I  would  repeat  the  appeal  of  the  Chicago 
and  Detroit  Conferences  that  some  concerted  attempt  be  made, 
preferably  through  your  Committee  on  Statistics  if  appointed— 
to  secure  uniformity  in  annual  reports  and  that  definite  statisti- 


144  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE   FOURTH 

cal  tables  be  designed  whose  publication  be  requested  of  every 
organization  holding  membership  in  the  conference. 

DISCUSSION. 

MR.  W.  B.  HACKENBURG,  Philadelphia :  Mr.  Heyman  strongly 
urges  that  the  homes  of  the  aged  should  not  be  in  connection 
with  other  institutions.  I  want  to  say,  from  an  experience  of 
forty-two  years  in  connection  with  the  Jewish  Hospital  Asso- 
ciation of  Philadelphia,  that  the  Home  for  the  Aged  and  In- 
firm has  been  in  continuous  co-operation  with  it  for  the  whole  of 
that  time.  In  neither  institution  can  you  find  any  detriment  from 
the  inmates  of  the  Home  for  the  Aged  and  Infirm  being  closely 
connected  with  the  Hospital.  They  are  at  present  in  a  separate 
building,  but  for  years  they  were  under  the  same  roof  in  a  sepa- 
rate portion  of  the  building.  The  older  people  are  always  glad 
to  be  afforded  an  opportunity  of  visiting  the  sick.  I  cannot  in 
any  sense  agree  with  the  statement  made  by  Mr.  Heyman  that 
it  is  detrimental  to  them. 

I  also  want  to  say,  in  regard  to  the  matter  of  giving  some- 
thing to  do — the  matter  of  industry.  It  is  almost  impossible  to 
give  them  any  regular  system  of  work — light  work.  It  is  a 
question  that  I  had  presented  to  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction  in  Denver  many  years  ago,  and  elicited 
considerable  debate;  the  result  was  a  general  agreement  that  it 
was  almost  impossible  to  get  the  old  people  in  the  homes  for  the 
aged  and  infirm  to  do  any  regular  work.  I  will  admit  that  the 
aged  women  do  assist  in  some  of  the  departments;  that  is,  in 
preparing  vegetables  and  things  of  that  kind,  but  I  have  inva- 
riably found  in  the  cases  of  old  men,  that  they  are  not  so  infirm 
but  what  they  could  have  assisted,  but  they  absolutely  refused 
or  said  after  a  trial  of  a  few  minutes  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  assist  in  the  way  suggested ;  so  that  the  matter  of  giving  them 
work  is  almost  out  of  the  question.  We  have  tried  over  and 
over  again,  and  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  no  use 
trying  any  longer.  Most  of  them  come  to  us  with  the  idea  that 
they  are  to  spend  their  days  in  idleness  and  without  anything 
to  do. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  We  will  now  proceed  with  the  discussion  of 
Messrs.  Bernstein,  Israels  and  Lowenstein's  papers. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  145 

MR.  MAX  MITCHELL,  Boston:  Dr.  Bernstein,  in  his 
paper  yesterday,  showed  us  that  it  was  possible,  in  a  period 
of  eleven  months,  to  find  175  homes  where  175  children 
were  placed.  Boston  was  the  first  city  in  the  United  States 
to  illustrate  the  possibility  of  the  private  family  for  boarding 
out.  I  still  maintain  that  the  private  family  home  is  the  real 
home  that  constitutes  the  natural  home  of  the  child.  We  have 
noAv  in  Massachusetts  worked  for  the  last  five  years  in  illustrat- 
ing the  placing  of  the  child  in  a  private  family  with  splendid 
results,  and  I  will  say  this,  that  after  four  years'  work  in  plac- 
ing Jewish  children  in  Jewish  homes,  we  have  managed  to  turn 
over  our  worker  that  has  worked  in  the  Jewish  charities — we 
have  placed  her  with  the  State,  and  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
has  taken  up  the  work  of  placing  Jewish  children  the  way  it 
ought  to  have  done  originally.  It  simply  illustrates  again  the 
history  of  this  country.  What  private  societies  are  doing  is  to 
illustrate  what  the  State  should  do  in  the  future.  It  has  been 
possible  to  illustrate  this  in  Massachusetts,  and  it  must  be  pos- 
sible elsewhere. 

MR.  ARNOLD  COHEN,  Philadelphia :  Local  pride  is  the  only 
thing  that  made  me  get  up  this  time.  Mr.  Mitchell  would  lead 
one  to  believe  that  his  town  was  the  first  one  that  provided  fos- 
ter children  with  homes.  I  am  sure  he  is  mistaken;  otherwise 
I  would  not  get  up  and  speak  upon  the  matter.  Dr.  Samuel 
Hirsch  instituted,  I  think,  in  1864,  the  Waisen-Verein,  which 
meant  raising  children  in  homes.  This  has  been  in  existence 
ever  since,  and  I  have  been  there  for  twenty-five  years.  I  have 
been  connected  with  it  almost  since  its  inception.  Our  expe- 
rience has  been  that  boarding  children  out  with  mothers  has 
been  a  perfect  success;  boarding  children  out  with  their  aunts 
or  near  relatives  has  also  been  a  success ;  boarding  them  out  with 
strangers  has  been  very  detrimental.  In  ten  cases  out  of 
twelve,  people  that  accept  children  to  board  them,  do  it  for  the 
money  that  is  given  them.  It  helps  them  along  in  their  house- 
keeping, as  they  are  very  short  and  just  about  able  to  get  along, 
but  the  additional  $2.50,  $3  or  $3.50  puts  them  in  a  better  condi- 
tion. Homes  for  children  are  good  when  with  mothers ;  it  is  the 
natural  home,  where  they  will  be  naturally  well  raised.  You  may 


146  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

have  some  mothers  who  are  not  raising  children  as  we  would 
like  them  to  be  raised ;  you  have  them  among  the  rich,  as  well  as 
you  have  among  the  poor. 

MR.  S.  M.  FLEISCHMAN,  Philadelphia:  There  is  one  point  I  wish  to 
call  attention  to,  and  one  only,  and  that  is,  that  inthediscussionof 
this  subject  we  generally  forget  and  lose  sight  of  the  merits  that 
are  specially  a  feature  of  orphan  asylum  education.  There  are 
many  points  that  should  be  considered,  but  this  one  point  I  wish 
to  call  your  attention  to  particularly,  and  that  is  the  effect  an«l 
the  influence  of  environment.  Now  in  twenty  years '  experience 
as  Superintendent  of  the  Jewish  Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asy- 
lum, I  have  learned  two  things.  First  of  all  I  have  learned 
that  the  evil  traits  in  a  great  many  instances  can  be  overcome  by 
the  influence  of  environment;  secondly,  I  have  learned  that  the 
boys  and  girls  that  have  remained  under  the  supervision  of  the 
Foster  Home  the  longest  have  made  the  best  success  of,  and  a 
greater  success  of  themselves  than  has  been  the  case  with  those 
who  have  been  returned  to  their  own  relatives  or  their  owa 
friends.  Besides,  I  claim,  out  of  all  the  experiences  of  fifty  years 
of  our  institution,  we  never  had  but  one  single  child  that  has  ever 
gone  out  of  the  institution  that  became  subject  to  punishment  by 
the  laws  of  the  State.  Now,  there  is  to-day,  a  young  man  in 
this  city — a  graduate  of  the  Foster  Home  and  Manual  Training 
School  of  Philadelphia,  who  gave  up  a  lucrative  position — a  busi- 
ness position  in  Philadelphia,  and  worked  himself  through  a  two 
years'  special  course  at  Harvard  University.  Further  than 
that,  there  is  to-day  one  of  our  boys,  a  graduate  of  the  Philadel- 
phia High  School,  who  worked  himself  for  two  years  through  the 
Western  Reserve  University  in  Cleveland,  earning  his  living 
as  stenographer  for  the  professors  in  College.  He  is  to- 
day taking  the  last  year's  course  in  Chicago  University,  and 
is  in  charge  of  religious  work  at  the  Home  for  the  Friendless — 
all  done  through  his  own  efforts,  secured  by  getting  his  incentive 
for  higher  education  in  the  environments  that  he  found  in  the 
Jewish  Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asylum.  Now  those  are  some 
of  the  advantages  of  institutional  life. 

MR.  JACOB  BASHEIN,  New  York:  I  will  not  compare  whether 
a  child  is  better  off  in  an  institution  or  whether  it  is  bet- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  147 

ter  off  in  a  private  home.  Conditions  to-day  in  New  York  are 
such  that  there  is  a  large  number  of  children  who  can- 
not be  accommodated  in  institutions,  and  it  is  those  children 
that  we  are  placing  out.  It  has  been  my  pleasure  to  assist  Dr. 
Bernstein  in  this  work  for  a  year.  I  feel,  after  giving  careful 
thought  to  this  matter,  you  will  form  an  opinion  that  this  Con- 
ference cannot  do  any  better  work  than  spread  the  idea  through- 
out the  country  and  help  us  place  out  children  who  cannot  to- 
day be  accommodated  by  Jewish  institutions.  Dr.  Bernstein 
read  to  you  the  paper  and  practically  covered  the  ground  as  to 
what  we  are  doing.  There  is  one  thing,  however,  he  has  omitted 
to  state,  and  that  is  that  we  have,  in  the  course  of  eleven  months, 
placed  out  not  176  children,  but  204  children.  This  is  the  num- 
ber that  we  have  placed  out;  176  children  are  to-day  under  ac- 
tual supervision ;  the  others  have  been  returned  to  their  parents, 
or  have  been  placed  with  relatives  through  the  efforts  of  this  bu- 
reau. So  that  we  have  relieved  the  State  of  the  maintenance  of 
204  children  in  the  community. 

Another  thing  I  wish  to  point  out,  not  only  do  we  benefit  the 
children  particularly — those  we  place  in  private  homes,  but  also 
the  foster  parents.  It  may  be  new  to  you.  I  tell  you  that  we 
have  had  mothers,  numbers  of  them — probably  ten  or  twelve  in 
all — come  to  us  and  say  that  we  brought  happiness  and  sun- 
shine into  their  home  by  placing  a  child  with  them.  I  know  of 
a  case  where  a  man,  while  not  being  a  bad  man,  has  stayed  away 
from  home  five  nights  a  week  and  some  times  seven  nights,  and 
since  the  child  has  been  placed  in  their  home  he  would  not  think 
of  leaving  the  home.  All  his  energjes — all  his  thoughts  are  con- 
centrated on  the  child.  It  has  brought  happiness  to  their  home 
and  joy,  and  they  really  cannot  get  over  it.  I  wish  to  say  one 
more  thing,  before  I  finish,  that  we  have  the  material — we  have 
the  children;  it  is  you  from  outside  New  York  that  have  the 
homes.  Of  course,  we  can  find  quite  a  large  number  of  homes 
in  New  York,  but  these  are  not  the  homes  where  we  wish  to  place 
out  children.  We  want  to  place  them,  if  possible,  in  fine  sur- 
roundings— in  country  homes  or  among  the  finer  class  of  Jews. 

MR.  MITCHELL  :  I  understand  you  to  say  that  in  one  instance, 
before  the  child  was  brought  to  the  home,  the  husband  would 


148  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

stay  out  five  nights  in  the  week,  and  sometimes  seven  nights. 
Must  I  infer  that  you  have  deliberately  given  one  of  your  or- 
phans into  the  home  after  you  have  investigated — after  you  have 
known  that  the  husband  was  a  depraved  man — you  gave  him 
that  child  to  take  care  of. 

MR.  BASHEIN  :  We  did  it  on  probation.  Every  child  is  placed 
on  probation.  Immediately  after  placing  the  child,  agents  visit 
the  home — if  necessary  twice  a  week.  It  will  not  absorb  the 
bad  morals  of  the  father. 

MR.  R.  A.  SONN,  Atlanta :  The  illustration — I  am  glad  it  has 
come  before  you,  because  it  will  be  found  upon  close  examina- 
tion, it  is  not  an  exception,  is  a  matter  of  frequency,  as  the 
gentleman  who  spoke  before  has  experienced  as  President  of 
the  Guardian  Society — boarding  places  are  not  a  success,  sim- 
ply for  the  reason  that  these  people  take  the  children  for  the 
revenue  given  them.  The  only  thing  that  can  be  conceded  is, 
that  mothers  should  be  subsidized,  and  the  children  held  to- 
gether in  the  family,  and  the  next  is  to  keep  them  with  the  rela- 
tives. If  you  go  beyond  that  you  will  fail.  You  have  only  been 
in  the  experimental  stages  of  this  matter.  I  am  opposed  to  mak- 
ing experiments  with  children.  Human  souls  are  not  merchan- 
dise. You  have  not  found  in  every  instance — in  a  great  many 
instances  where  children  have  been  placed  in  private  homes  in 
New  York,  that  it  was  successful,  because  you  have  found  ulti- 
mately it  has  not  proved  a  success.  You  have  not  thought  that 
in  that  class  of  private  families,  that  are  willing  to  take  children, 
changes  occur  of  such  frequency  as  to  affect  the  child.  A  man 
may  move  from  town ;  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  ehild ; 
are  you  going  to  take  the  child  along  1  Of  course  not ;  you  can- 
not supervise  the  child  when  he  moves.  A  foster  father  of  that 
kind,  or  a  foster  mother  of  that  kind,  will  do  like  other  people 
will.  What  is  going  to  become  of  that  child;  get  him  another 
father — another  mother? 

I  am  of  the  opinion  that  too  many  mothers  and  fathers  is  not 
the  proper  thing.  There  are  other  reasons — a  man  loses  his  po- 
sition— loses  his  daily  work — he  may  die,  what  is  going  to  be- 
come of  the  baby? 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  149 

DR.  BOGEN:  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  about  children.  I 
must  confess  the  sentiment  expressed  here — experiments  with 
children  have  to  be  made  carefully — is  a  very  important  senti- 
ment. I  believe  that  we  should  try  new  methods  from  those 
that  we  have  learned  of  now,  because  the  work  of  the  institution 
in  taking  care  of  children  is  not  satisfactory.  Now  the  question 
of  placing  out  children  can  be  tried  on  a  small  and  a  large  scale. 
We  have  heard  Dr.  Bernstein,  in  his  enthusiastic  report  of  the 
results  given  us  for  the  last  year.  Now  in  Cincinnati  we  always 
try  to  do  things  to  the  extreme,  and  spend  money  on  experi- 
ments quite  lavishly.  We  were  not  the  first  to  place  out  children, 
I  suppose,  but  we  have  tried  to  do  all  we  possibly  could  in  this 
direction.  I  believe  there  is  some  difference  between  the  meth- 
ods of  our  city  and  others  in  this  particular  respect.  I  person- 
ally do  not  believe  in  placing  children  in  a  family  where  there 
is  a  man  alive.  I  believe  in  placing  them  with  widows  who  have 
to  take  care  of  their  own  children — where  they  are  relieved  by 
organizations  and  have  to  take  care  of  their  families  and  feel  in 
duty  bound  to  take  care  of  some  of  the  children  who  are  unfor- 
tunate enough  to  be  full  orphans.  This  being  the  case,  we  have 
no  difficulty  in  finding  the  proper  home,  for  the  very  reason  thai; 
we  can  supervise  directly.  We  happened  to  have  five  children 
in  our  place,  belonging  to  one  family.  They  are  not  orphans. 
The  man  and  wife  did  not  care  for  the  children,  so  we  took  away 
the  children  through  the  Juvenile  Court.  Now  we  have  a  man 
and  wife,  50  and  52  years  old,  unable  to  earn  a  livelihood,  cf 
very  high  intellectual  and  moral  standing.  It  came  to  our  mind 
that  the  best  thing  was  to  give  them  a  cottage — this  man  and 
wife — give  them  the  five  children 'and  form  a  new  family. 

DR.  JACOB  HOLLANDER,  Baltimore:  It  seems  to  me  we  have 
reached  a  point  in  the  discussion  where  further  project  mighi 
be  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Resolutions.  There  is  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion.  This  is  not  a  body  to  register  decrees.  It 
would  be  very  undesirable  to  consider  evidence  presented  pro  or 
con  or  evidence  sentiments  by  formal  vote,  because  we  do  not 
know  enough  of  what  we  are  talking  about.  We  have  heard  a 
very  limited  presentation  based  upon  very  inadequate  facts.  A 
greater  emphasis  is  therefore  to  be  put  upon  the  recommeuda- 


150  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

tion  in  Mr.  Lowenstein's  paper — that  the  growth  of  statistics 
should  be  the  basis  of  any  further  generalization  on  the  matter 
It  is  very  simple  to  do  two  things — to  talk  absolutely  about  some- 
thing of  which  you  know  nothing,  and  to  talk  even  more  abso- 
lutely about  something  of  which  you  know  very  little.  In  the 
case  of  the  papers  here  that  have  been  presented,  I  have  no  rea- 
son to  suppose,  nor  do  I  think  anyone  here  does,  that  we  are 
building  upon  the  experience  of  not  more  than  a  very  limited 
number  of  communities,  and  before  the  Conference  should  take 
any  action  definitely,  or  even  lend  its  moral  support  to  any 
school  of  child  caring  industry,  it  is  highly  desirable  that  we 
should  have  the  fullest  and  most  detailed  statistical  information 
— not  statistical  in  the  sense  merely  of  numerical  aggregates,  but 
also  of  qualitative  data.  We  should  know  what  is  being  done 
in  not  one,  two  or  a  half  dozen  committees,  but  in  every  commu- 
nity where  a  deliberate  attempt  is  being  made  to  look  after  the 
welfare  of  orphans  or  half  orphans.  It  is  profitless  and  it  is 
dangerous  for  us  to  attempt  to  formulate  general  conclusions 
upon  the  basis  of  very  inadequate  and  somewhat  emotional  gen- 
eralities. I  should  say  the  lesson  here,  as  in  much  of  our  dis- 
cussion, is  let  us  find  out  more  and  let  us  talk  less  positively  un- 
til we  know  more. 

DR.  A.  R.  LEVY,  Chicago :  I  would  say  this :  That  institutions 
have  their  faults  as  has  every  other  institution  that  is  created 
to  rectify  the  faults.  I  see  by  the  list  in  Chicago,  that  we  have 
an  institution  that  does  keep  children.  In  my  own  experience 
this  came  under  my  observation :  I  knew  of  a  woman  who  had 
three  children,  her  husband  died  and  she  was  very  poor.  She 
was  given  $35  a  month,  which  was  cheaper  than  the  children 
could  have  been  kept  for  in  the  asylum.  The  woman  raised  the 
children  in  a  proper  manner;  she  probably  worked  hard  till  the 
youngest  child  was  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  old.  She  has  given 
her  whole  life  for  the  children.  The  children  were  not  able  to 
support  her.  She  has  given  her  help  in  the  fulfilment  of  duty. 
I  can  only  tell  you  that  we  all  recommend  it  to  every  institution 
— to  do  as  the  society  has  done  in  Chicago. 

MR.  HACKENBURG:  I  think  Dr.  Hollander's  remarks  were 
to  the  point— that  we  are  all  possibly  discussing  a  question 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  151 

about  which  we  know  very  little.  There  is  one  thing  I  do  want 
to  say — I  object  to  that  portion  of  Mr.  Lowenstein's  paper  in  re- 
gard to  educating  children  other  than  in  the  public  schools. 
There  is  ho  reason  in  the  world  why  Jewish  children  from  the 
orphan  asylum  should  not  be  sent  to  the  public  schools  to  be  edu- 
cated. I  think  it  would  benefit  all  the  children.  I  want  to  say 
if  you  want  to  establish  facts,  you  must  refer  to  history.  The 
history  of  every  large  Jewish  orphan  asylum  in  this  country, 
and  those  in  other  parts  of  the  world  has  been  that  children  have 
gone  out  from  these  asylums  and  have  invariably  turned  out  to 
be  good  men  and  good  women.  Boarding  out  children  in  families 
where  you  don't  know  anything  about  the  family  is  dangerous — 
some  may  be  very  good — most  of  them  are  very  poor,  and  they 
take  the  children  really  for  the  sake  of  the  money  that  may  be 
acquired,  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  for  no  other  purpose.  I  see 
no  reason  why  we  should  abandon  the  institution  or  try  to  be- 
little it  in  the  manner  proposed  here. 

MR.  MAX  SENIOR,  Cincinnati :  I  only  have  one  or  two  sugges- 
tions. I  want  to  call  attention  to  the  fact,  that  with  few  excep- 
tions, a  live  Jew  is  better  than  a  dead  one.  And  that  a  live 
father  and  mother  are  much  better  than  even  an  orphan  asylum 
or  placing  out  institution,  and  that  if  you  will  give  only  a  por- 
tion of  the  attention  and  the  money  that  you  give  to  taking  care 
of  the  orphans  after  their  father  and  mother  are  dead,  to  saving 
the  father  and  mother  while  alive,  you  will  be  doing  better  work 
than  all  the  orphan  asylums  and  all  the  placing-out  institutions 
in  the  country.  Take  care  of  disease  at  the  time  it  can  be  taken 
care  of,  take  care  of  typhoid  fever  cases  after  they  have  left  the 
hospital,  and  when  they  need  three  or  four  weeks  vacation. 
Take  care  of  the  people  in  order  that  they  may  live  and  not  die, 
and  that,  to  my  mind  is  one  of  the  best  means  of  solving  the  or- 
phan question.  If  we  have  had  any  success  in  Cincinnati,  I  say 
it  has  been  largely  in  the  way  of  preventing  orphans.  Never- 
theless, we  will  have  some  orphans,  and  Chicago  will  have  some, 
and  Cleveland  will  have  some,  and  Columbus  and  Minneapolis 
will  have  some,  and  Louisville  will  have  some ;  and  if,  I  say  if,  it 
shall  appear  desirable  to  establish  these  child-placing  agencies, 
it  seems  to  me  desirable  that  these  various  communities  in  the 


152  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

districts  that  I  have  mentioned — in  the  same  way  it  could  be 
done,  for  instance,  in  Kansas  City,  St.  Louis  and  Omaha — that 
these  communities  should  unite  in  order  that  they  may  provide 
a  proper  agency  in  this  way,  in  the  same  manner  as  they  already 
unite  in  the  other  departments,  namely,  in  the  placing  of 
childen  in  orphan  asylums.  It  might  be  well  to  bring  the  mat- 
ter to  the  attention  of  the  various  organizations  throughout  the 
country,  namely  that  here  is  a  ready  and  fruitful  method  of  us- 
ing this  plan  of  interurban  co-operation  which  has  already  been 
so  successful  in  the  maintenance  and  establishment  of  our  or- 
phan asylums. 

MR.  LEO  LOEB,  Philadelphia:  I  have  given,  till  recently,  my 
time  for  twenty-five  years  past,  and  have  for  the  last  fifteen 
years  presided  over  the  Foster  Home  and  Orphan  Asylum  of 
Philadelphia.  You  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  institution 
yesterday;  you  noticed  its  environment;  you  probably  noticed 
some  of  the  children.  I  do  not  wish  to  stand  here  and  go  into 
details,  nor  do  I  wish  to  stand  here  and  defend  institution  life 
or  condemn  it;  I  do  know  that  children  raised  in  insti- 
tutions are  not  always  bad.  I  speak  of  practical  results  now- 
not  theoretical  ones.  I  have  noticed  the  children  we  have  had 
under  our  observation  for  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  some 
of  the  people  who  are  here  to-day  who  have  been  connected  with 
that  institution  for  fifty  years  could  get  up  and  give  details  fur- 
ther than  I  can.  I  had  the  pleasure  recently  to  be  asked  to  thu 
alumni  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Foster  Home — children  who 
were  raised  at  the  Foster  Home.  There  were  seventy  odd  men 
and  women  there  who  were  raised  at  the  Foster  Home.  They 
represented  people  in  every  walk  of  life.  I  could  name 
you  almost  every  profession:  the  merchant,  the  dentist,  the 
doctors,  lawyers  represented  there  at  that  meeting — not  only 
themselves,  but  they  brought  their  wives  and  children,  and  I 
defy  any  man  in  this  community  or  any  other,  to  single  out  th<* 
conditions  in  which  any  other  child  could  be  handled  better  than 
what  was  represented  at  that  meeting.  They  were  not  ashamed 
of  having  been  raised  in  an  institution ;  in  fact  they  were  proud 
of  it,  and  they  so  intimated  to  their  alma  mater;  they  love  the 
institution  in  which  they  were  reared.  It  is  not  always  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  153 

mother  that  lives;  the  mother  frequently  dies,  and  the  father  is 
unable  to  take  care  of  the  children.  Every  sentiment  expressed 
here  is  always  in  favor  of  the  mother.  Give  the  child  to  the 
mother.  I  say  that  is  right  if  you  have  the  mother,  but  you  fre- 
quently don't  have  the  mother. 

DR.  BERNSTEIN:  According  to  the  theory  and  philosophy 
of  some  of  the  speakers,  it  would  seem  to  be  the  best 
plan  in  this  universe  to  take  all  the  poor  children  out 
of  their  poor,  unsuitable  homes,  and  put  them  into  those 
glorious  orphan  asylums  of  red  brick  walls.  Let  those 
mothers  look  at  the  grand  structure  and  then  let  them 
starve  for  hunger  of  sentiment  and  affection.  I  believe,  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  that  after  all,  the  method  of  taking  care  of 
children  is  not  to  be  determined  according  to  brick  walls  and  ac- 
cording to  gymnasiums,  and  according  to  whether  or  not  one,  two, 
three  or  five  hundred  people  have  become  lawyers  or  medical 
men,  but  after  all,  the  great  philosophy  of  life  is  whether  or  not 
society  has  a  right  to  claim  as  one  of  its  most  important  con- 
cerns the  preservation  not  of  the  orphan  asylum  family,  but  of 
the  real  family.  Of  course,  no  one  will  condemn  a  child  that 
has  been*  brought  up  in  an  orphan  asylum.  There  is  no  neces- 
sity for  doing  so,  but  I  claim  that  it  is  our  plain  duty  to  see  that 
in  addition  to  orphan  asylum  training,  which  is  the  most  con- 
venient, but  the  most  unnatural  one,  it  is  our  plain  duty  to  see 
that  we  have  some  other  methods  more  natural,  more  advanced, 
more  corresponding  than  the  methods  of  training  five  thousand 
children  according  to  our  plan  of  discipline,  routine  and  method, 
without  the  slightest  possible  effort  on  the  part  of  anybody  to 
individualize  the  child — to  offer  to  the  child  the  individual 
love,  care  and  attention  which  it  is  possible  to  offer  in  the  ordi- 
nary, normal  home. 

The  objection  that  we  pay  money  for  the  home  is  naturally 
absurd.  The  mother  that  does  the  work  for  the  child  cannot  be 
paid  for  her  love  and  affection  and  does  not  expect  to  be  paid 
for  that. 

Truth  tells  me  that  there  are  children  that  cannot  and  must 
not  be  trained  in  an  orphan  asylum.  Truth  tells  me  that  there  are 
children  whom  it  is  a  crime  to  send  to  an  orphan  asylum.  There 


154  PROCEEDINGS   OF    THE   FOURTH 

are  children  of  nervous  temperament;  there  are  so-called  mis- 
chievous children  who  are  full  of  mischief  in  the  eyes  of  the  su- 
perintendent, because  it  is  too  inconvenient  to  just  live  in  an  in- 
stitution and  care  for  the  mischievous  element,  and  yet  has  not 
the  mischievous  child  as  much  right  to  exist,  as  the  so-called  ma- 
chine child — the  child  that  readily  yields  to  the  institution  ma- 
chine and  the  routine  ?  Of  course  he  has  the  right.  Now,  then, 
isn't  it  a  fact  that  we,  who  are  responsible  for  the  care  and 
training  of  these  children,  find  that  there  are  numbers  whom  we 
cannot  deal  with  readily?  If  we  are  honest  and  frank  in  our 
work,  we  must  admit  that  there  are  children  that  cannot  be 
handled  in  institutions.  The  moment  we  admit  it,  we  must  look 
for  other  methods,  and  I  pity  the  man  who  tells  me  that  his  in- 
stitution is  so  perfect  that  every  child  is  lovely  and  grand  and 
wonderful.  I  pity  the  man  who  tells  me  that  in  consequence  of 
the  glorious  training  received  in  that  glorious  institution,  the 
child  has  become  a  student  of  law,  or  the  child  has  become  a 
medical  man,  or  the  child  has  become  a  Rabbi.  I  pity  the  man 
who  tells  me  that,  because  when  I  look  at  the  College  of  the  City 
of  New  York— at  the  City  of  New  York  Normal  College,  with 
six  thousand  children  from  the  Jewish  Ghettos,  I  see  not  only 
five,  ten,  fifteen  future  rabbis,  teachers,  medical  men,  but  I  see 
five  thousand  prospective  lawyers,  rabbis,  and  other  professional 
men.  Therefore  the  glorious  work  of  the  orphan  asylum  has 
no  effect  on  me. 

Now,  then,  to  sum  up :  Don't  let  us  fool  ourselves,  don't  let  us 
imagine  that  because  some  of  you  worthy  gentlemen  who  help  to 
conduct  our  orphan  asylums,  and  who  find  that  everything  looks 
so  grand  and  there  are  twenty-five  acres  of  ground,  beautiful 
and  blossoming  land  around — don't  imagine  that  this  is  the 
great  method  of  child-caring  institution,  because  it  is  not.  It 
does  not  begin  to  be.  In  order  to  be  the  best  method — in  order 
to  be  only  one  of  the  good  methods,  we  have,  first  of  all,  to  abol- 
ish the  congregate  institution.  We  have,  first  of  all,  to  learn  that 
instead  of  herding  them  all  together  like  cattle,  as  in  ancient 
Sparta  and  Greece,  you  have  to  congregate  them  in  small  groups 
in  charge  of  an  intelligent  cottage  father  or  mother — not  in 
groups  of  150  or  300  or  500.  We  don't  train  children  like  that. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  155 

But  I  do  claim  above  all  that  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  under- 
stand that  of  three  fundamental  methods  of  child-caring,  after 
all  the  first  great  method  is  the  natural  poor  home — the  home 
thriving  with  hope  for  greater  days — the  home  in  which,  after 
all,  our  greatest  men  were  born  and  brought  up — the  poor  home 
of  the  mother  is  the  first  and  most  important  method.  Secondly, 
the  most  important  method  is  the  work  which  makes  it  possible 
to  give  the  child  a  home  outside  of  a  first  home,  wherever  that 
is.  If  you  can  make  it  possible  to  give  a  real  home  in  your  in- 
stitution, keep  it  by  all  means  for  millions  of  years  to  come,  but 
unless  you  can  give  the  child  a  home,  you  are  keeping  the  child 
without  a  home  and  you  have  no  right  to  do  it.  Do  not  think 
that  your  grand  institutions  are  going  to  substitute  the  home; 
those  that  believe  it  are  deceiving  themselves.  The  non-Jewish 
child-caring  methods  have  shown  us  the  road.  Do  not  try  to  be 
retrogressive.  Let  us  work  it  out ;  let  us  develop  it,  and  then  let 
us  say  to  ourselves,  "We  Jews  are  doing  at  least  as  well  as  the 
non- Jewish  child-caring  institutions." 

THE  PRESIDENT:  The  chairman  has  some  decided  convictions 
on  this  point  which  he  does  not  intend  to  impress  any  further 
than  he  did  in  the  presidential  address,  except  to  say  just  one 
word,  and  that  is,  that  I  suppose  the  unanimous  opinion  of  this 
body  would  be  that  our  Jewish  orphan  asylums  are  the  best  orphan 
asylums  in  the  world,  that  the  superintendents,  of  our  Jewish  or- 
phan asylums  are  the  best  possible  superintendents  in  the  world  ; 
but  whenever  we  succeed  in  finding  or  developing  the  man  or 
woman  who  can  be  a  real  father  and  mother  to  five  hundred  or 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  or  a  thousand  and  twenty  or  more 
children — one  to  whom  each  child  can  go  daily  with  all  its  petty 
trials  and  troubles  that  make  up  so  much  of  life — one  to  whom 
each  child  before  going  to  sleep  can  go  and  pour  out  those  little 
burdens  that  to  us  as  parents  mean  so  little,  but  which  we  as 
parents  know  mean  so  much  to  the  child ;  then  we  no  longer  need 
talk  about  home  finding  institutions;  when  we  establish  as  the 
basis  of  our  civilization  merely  education  of  the  mind;  merely 
general,  uniform  moral  education — then  we  need  no  longer  talk 
about  home  finding  institutions.  I  do  not  think  that  this  is  go- 
ing to  be  the  basis  of  American  civilization,  and  if  it  is  not  go- 


156  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

ing  to  be  the  basis — if  the  home — if  the  family — if  the  individ- 
ual in  the  family  home  is  the  foundation  stone  of  human  prog- 
ress— then  we  must  do  all  we  can  to  further  and  to  lay  deeper 
and  better  those  foundation  stones.  Let  us  go  home  and  con- 
sider all  of  these  problems ;  let  us  go  ahead,  those  of  us  who  have 
schemes  for  trying  to  find  the  proper  homes  (we  are  not  talking 
about  improper  homes),  and  see  what  we  can  do  in  the  next  two 
years.  But  the  one  thing  that  I  want  to  say  is  this:  Do  not 
let  us  go  ahead  in  the  next  two  years  and  add  to  our  orphan  asy- 
lums— do  not  let  us  go  ahead  and  pile  on  brick  and  mortar;  do 
not  let  us  go  ahead  and  increase  our  congregate  institutions. 
I  do  not  say  for  a  moment,  tear  down  those  walls,  be- 
cause we  need  them — we  need  them  in  the  evolution  of 
child-caring — but  do  not  let  us  add  to  them  at  this  time,  when 
so  many  of  us  feel  that  we  are  right  in  the  throes  of  change; 
that  we  are  moving  forward  and  onward ;  do  not  let  us  now  put 
an  obstacle  in  the  path  of  onward  movement;  let  us  stop  wher^ 
we  are;  let  us  consider  what  those  who  have  other  ideas  have 
to  say;  let  us  digest  them;  do  not  let  us  put  obstacles  in  the 
paths — and  if  in  any  of  these  cities  you  are  now  planning  to 
increase  the  size  of  the  orphan  asylums,  stop  that  work  for  at 
least  two  years  and  see  whether  your  own  communities  want  it. 
at  the  end  of  that  time,  and  if  after  then  you  are  going  to  keep 
the  present  orphan  asylums,  well  and  good,  but  do  not  pile  up 
the  numbers  to  500  or  1,000;  keep  them  down  to  150  or  200. 
and  take  care  of  the  rest  of  the  orphans  in  some  other  way. 

I 

HEBREW  LITERATURE  SOCIETY,  2  P.  M.,  May  8,  1906. 

THE  BARON  DE  HIRSCH  FUND. 

EUGENE  S.  BENJAMIN,  President  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund, 
New  York  City. 

In  the  invitation  to  prepare  a  paper  to  be  read  before  the  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Jewish  Charities,  it  was  suggested  that  "be- 
cause of  the  dense  ignorance  which  prevails  among  all  the  people 
in  regard  to  the  work  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund,  Jewish 
charity  workers  ought  to  know  what  the  fund  is;  what  is  its 
history,  and  what  is  the  work  it  is  actually  doing. ' ' 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  157 

It  will  give  me  much  pleasure  to  present  you  the  information 
suggested  by  your  President.  In  view,  however,  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  audience  to  whom  the  paper  is  addressed,  I  shall  con- 
fine my  remarks  almost  entirely  to  a  concise  statement  of  facts 
and  figures,  and  shall  make  no  effort  to  present  any  arguments  to 
show  the  necessity  of  the  kind  of  work  which  we  have  undertaken, 
nor  to  dilate  upon  the  benefits  that  we  feel  must  result  there- 
from, knowing  that  as  experts  in  the  field  of  charity,  you  need 
only  a  statement  of  the  facts  to  put  you  in  complete  touch  and 
sympathy  with  our  work. 

The  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund  was  founded  in  1891  by  the  Baron 
Maurice  de  Hirsch,  who  gave  to  a  committee  of  nine  gentlemen 
and  their  successors  the  sum  of  two  million  four  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  ($2,400,000)  in  trust  for  the  purposes  mentioned  in 
the  deed.  The  original  trustees  were  Myer  S.  Isaacs,  Jesse  Selig- 
man,  Jacob  H.  SchifF,  Oscar  S.  Straus,  Henry  Rice,  James  H. 
Hoffman,  Julius  Goldman,  Mayer  Sulzberger  and  William  B. 
Hackenburg. 

The  objects  and  purposes  as  expressed  in  the  deed  of  trust  were 
as  follows : 

1.  Loans  to  emigrants  from  Russia  or  Roumania,  agricultur- 
ists,  settlers  within   the  United   States,   upon   real   or  chattel 
security. 

2.  Provision   for  the   transportation   of   immigrants   selected 
(after  their  arrival  at  any  American  port)   with  reference  to 
their  age,  character  and  capacity,  to  places  where  it  is  expected 
the  conditions  of  the  labor  market  or  the  residence  of  friends 
will  tend  to  make  them  self -supporting. 

3.  Provision  for  training  immigrants  in  a  handicraft  and  con- 
tributing to  their  support  while  learning  such  handicraft,  and 
for  furnishing  the  necessary  tools  and  implements  and  other 
assistance  to  enable  them  to  earn  a  livelihood. 

4.  Provision  for  improved  mechanical  training  for  adults  and 
youths— immigrants  and  their  children— whereby  persons  of  in- 
dustry and  capacity  may  acquire  some  remunerative  employment, 
either  by  the  payment  of  apprenticeship,  or  tuition  fees,  or  the 
instruction  of  adults  and  minors  in  trade  schools  or  otherwise, 
with  contributions  for  temporary  support. 


158  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

5.  Provision  for  instruction  in  the  English  language  and  in 
the  duties  and  obligations  of  life  and  citizenship  in  the  United 
States,  and  for  technical  and  trade  education,  and  the  establish- 
ment and  subvention  of  special  schools,  workshops  and  other 
suitable  agencies  for  promoting  and  maintaining  such  instruction. 

6.  Provision  for  instruction  in  agricultural  work  and  improved 
methods  of  farming  and  for  aiding  settlers  with  tools  and  imple- 
ments, and  the  practical  supervision  of  such  instruction,  con- 
ducted upon  suitable  tracts  of  land  and  in  necessary  buildings. 

7.  Co-operation  with  established  agencies  in  various  sections  of 
the  United  States,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  in  whole  or  in  part  to 
furnish  aid  or  relief,  and  education  to  needy  and  deserving  ap- 
plicants coming  within  the  classes  designated  herein. 

8.  Contributions  towards  the  maintenance  of  individuals  and 
families,  while  temporarily  awaiting  work,  or  when  settled  in  the 
new  homes  in  which  they  may  be  established. 

9.  Such  other  and  further  modes  of  relief  and  such  other  and 
further  contributions  to  education  and  in  such  departments  of 
knowledge  as  the  said  trustees  or  their  successors  shall  from  time 
to  time  decide. 

The  objects  of  the  fund,  as  you  will  see,  are  well  defined.  In  a 
word,  the  purpose  of  the  donor  was  to  assist  immigrants  and 
establish  them  as  useful  members  of  the  community  in  which  they 
settled.  This  purpose,  however,  has  often  been  misunderstood, 
and  from  time  to  time  in  the  public  press  the  Fund  has  been 
spoken  of  as  a  fund  to  assist  immigration.  Such  a  statement  of 
our  purpose  is  entirely  unwarranted  and  absolutely  contrary  to 
fact.  The  Fund  has  never  undertaken  to  promote  or  assist  immi- 
gration. We  deal  only  with  the  immigrant  after  he  has  arrived 
in  this  country.  After  he  has  once  reached  the  United  States  he 
becomes  a  proper  subject  for  our  assistance  and  advice.  A  care- 
ful examination  of  the  Deed  of  Trust  will  show  that  such  was 
the  wish  and  instruction  of  the  donor,  and  in  administering  their 
trust  the  trustees  have  strictly  adhered  to  this  course. 

The  fund,  thus  established  by  the  Baron  de  Hirsch,  was  sub- 
sequently very  largely  increased  by  a  donation  made  by  the 
Baroness  de  Hirsch  in  1898  and  still  further  by  a  bequest  received 
under  her  will. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  159 

A  portion  of  the  principal  was  expended  at  once,  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Deed  of  Trust,  in  the  purchase  of  land  and  the 
erection  of  buildings  at  Woodbine ;  the  balance  of  the  principal 
of  the  fund  has  been  kept  intact  by  the  trustees  and  now  amounts 
to  $3.800,000,  and  only  the  income  thereof  is  used.  This  income, 
however,  is  by  no  means  sufficient  to  defray  the  cost  of  the  work 
undertaken  by  the  trustees  and  we  are  only  able  to  continue  our 
many  activities  through  the  generous  financial  assistance  annually 
rendered  us  by  the  Jewish  Colonization  Association  of  Paris. 

Having  thus  concisely  stated  the  origin  of  the  fund  and  the 
sources  of  its  income,  I  shall  proceed  to  give  you  a  brief  sum- 
mary of  the  different  kinds  of  work  undertaken  or  fostered  by  it. 
For  the  purpose  of  this  address,  I  shall  divide  the  work  into 
five  groups,  viz. : 

1.  Genera]  Aid  to  the  Immigrant. 

2.  Removal  Work. 

3.  Educational  Work. 

4.  Woodbine  ond  Other  Industrial  Activities. 

5.  Agricultural  Work. 

First— General  Aid  to  the  Immigrant. 

During  the  first  two  years  of  his  stay  in  this  country,  the  immi- 
grant is  regarded  by  us  as  in  some  respects  our  ward,  and  en- 
titled to  our  help.  Upon  his  arrival  at  Ellis  Island,  an  agent 
of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities,  who  is  paid  by  us,  meets  the 
immigrant  and  gives  him  such  information,  advice  and  other 
assistance  as  the  circumstances  of  the  case  may  require.  If  the 
immigrant  is  a  woman  arriving  here  unattended,  an  agent  of 
the  Council  of  Jewish  Women,  for  whose  services  we  likewise 
make  the  necessary  financial  provision,  looks  after  her  welfare 
and  prevents  her  going  astray,  and  if  she  has  no  proper  place  to 
go  to,  then,  until  she  gets  a  position  or  is  otherwise  satisfactorily 
placed,  she  is  cared  for  at  the  down-town  lodging  house  for  im- 
migrant girls  conducted  by  the  Clara  de  Hirsch  Home,  which 
lodging  house  is  maintained  in  part  by  our  financial  assistance. 

When  the  new  arrival,  through  illness  or  other  misfortune, 
fails  to  succeed,  he  is  furnished  with  the  necessary  tools  or  im- 
plements of  his  trade,  employment  is  found  for  him,  a  trade 
taught  him  or  temporary  financial  assistance  given  him. 


160  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE   FOURTH 

In  New  York  city  this  assistance  is  given  through  the  agency 
of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities ;  and  in  Philadelphia  and  Balti- 
more through  branch  committees  of  the  fund,  to  all  of  whom  we 
supply  the  funds  necessary  to  do  this  work.  To  a  smaller  extent 
funds  are  also  supplied  to  Boston  for  similar  work. 

The  following  summary  of  the  work  done  through  the  local 
branch  of  the  fund  in  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1905  will  give 
you  a  fair  idea  of  the  varied  character  of  the  assistance  thus 
given.  In  that  year  tools  were  supplied  to  mechanics  and  others 
in  255  cases ;  trades  and  occupations  taught,  62 ;  assisted  in  busi- 
ness, 97;  assisted  in  support  while  working,  22;  furnished  with 
transportation  to  other  points,  8;  and  in  addition  to  the  fore- 
going, employment  was  found  for  165  others. 

The  foregoing  is  a  very  brief  sketch  of  the  character  of  the 
general  aid  furnished  by  the  society  to  the  newly  arrived  immi- 
grant. 

This  aid  is  of  great  value  to  those  assisted  and  yet,  in  view  of 
the  large  number  of  immigrants  arriving  here  unfamiliar  with 
the  language  and  customs  of  our  country,  it  is,  indeed,  truly 
remarkable  how  few  in  number  require  assistance  to  become  self- 
supporting. 

A  different  kind  of  aid  furnished  by  us  to  the  newly  arrived 
immigrant  is  the  opportunity  which  we  secure  for  him  of  satis- 
factorily locating  himself  in  country  districts  and  smaller  towns. 
This  brings  me  to  the  second  subdivision  of  our  work  which  I 
have  entitled,  "Removal  Work." 

Second— Removal  Work. 

This  work  was  initiated  in  1891  with  a  view  of  relieving  the 
pressure  on  the  seaport  cities  at  the  time  of  the  heavy  immigra- 
tion of  Jews  to  the  United  States,  and  large  numbers  of  the  im- 
migrants were  settled  in  manufacturing  towns  in  the  East  and 
West.  This  work  became  so  extensive  and  its  beneficent  results 
so  apparent  that  in  1900  it  was  decided  to  thoroughly  systematize 
it  and  conduct  it  on  a  large  and  permanent  scale.  Accordingly 
the  Jewish  Agricultural  and  Industrial  Aid  Society  was  organ- 
ized, and  to  a  branch  of  that  society,  known  as  the  Removal  Com- 
mittee, this  work  has  been  entrusted.  Numerous  agencies  have 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  161 

been  established  and  working  arrangements  made  with  local 
societies,  or  with  committees  -of  public  spirited  citizens  in  most 
of  the  important  centers  of  the  United  States,  and  about  6,000 
persons  are  removed  annually  from  New  York  city  alone  and  self- 
sustaining  positions  found  elsewhere  for  all  of  them.  The  paper 
on  Distribution  read  on  the  opening  day  of  the  Conference  by 
Mr.  Cyrus  L.  Sulzberger,  has  fully  described  this  work  in  detail, 
and  it  is  therefore  unnecessary  for  me  to  enter  into  any  further 
details  on  the  subject,  except  perhaps  to  say  that  there  is  no 
part  in  the  work  accomplished  with  the  aid  of  the  funds  of  our 
society  which  gives  us  greater  satisfaction  or  which  has  borne 
more  immediate  fruit. 

Third — Educational   Work. 

It  is  of  vital  importance  that  the  adult  immigrant  should 
promptly  obtain  a  knowledge  of  the  English  language  and  in  the 
interest  of  good  government  that  he  should  become  familiar  with 
the  customs  of  the  country  and  the  theory  of  our  government, 
and  in  the  case  of  the  child  that  he  should  be  prepared  as 
promptly  as  possible  to  take  his  proper  grade  in  the  public  school, 
or  if  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  go  to  work,  that  he  should  quickly 
receive  the  minimum  of  education  which  is  required  by  the  State 
before  he  is  excused  from  attending  the  public  schools. 

To  accomplish  these  purposes  the  educational  work  of  the 
society  is  conducted.  In  New  York  city  the  Educational  Alliance, 
through  funds  furnished  by  us,  maintains  day  classes  for  chil- 
dren and  adults,  where  the  pupils  are  kept  for  a  period  ranging 
from  three  months  to  a  year  and  half;  more  than  850  pupils 
passed  through  these  day  classes  in  1905,  of  whom  570  were 
turned  over  to  the  public  schools  and  105  others  received  their 
working  papers.  In  the  same  way  a  night  school  is  maintained, 
supplementing  the  public  night  schools  and  is  kept  open  from 
April  to  September  when  the  public  night  schools  are  closed. 
This  night  school  is  attended  by  adults  ranging  in  years  from 
17  to  50.  The  number  applying  this  year  was  1,600.  of  whom 
only  500  could  be  admitted,  but  additional  classes  will  be  opened 
to  accommodate  300  more ;  90%  of  those  enrolled  have  been  four 
months  in  the  country. 


162  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

In  Brooklyn  we  aid  the  Hebrew  Educational  Society ;  in  Phil- 
adelphia the  Hebrew  Educational  Society;  in  Pittsburg  the 
Columbian  Council,  and  in  St.  Louis  the  Jewish  Educational 
Society,  all  of  whom  maintain  classes  similar  to  those  conducted 
by  the  Educational  Alliance  in  New  York  city. 

A  very  important  feature  of  our  educational  work  is  the  Baron 
de  Hirsch  Trade  School  in  East  64th  Street.  New  York  City. 
This  is  a  fully  equipped  and  well-housed  school  for  the  teaching 
of  trades.  With  a  course  of  instruction  of  ^l/2  months,  it  fits  boys 
to  qualify  as  helpers  in  certain  mechanical  trades.  The  trades 
taught  are  those  of  carpenter,  machinist,  plumber,  electrical 
working  and  house  and  sign  painting.  The  capacity  of  the  school 
is  taxed  to  its  utmost,  and  its  success  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at 
our  last  semi-annual  entrance  date  there  were  711  applicants, 
while  the  size  of  the  building  will  only  permit  us  to  admit  150. 
In  this  school  we  try  to  get  down  to  a  practical  basis,  and  to  give 
such  instruction  as  will  fit  the  boy  to  become  a  valuable  helper 
to  a  journeyman  workman.  While  we  do  not  aim  to  teach  a 
trade  thoroughly,  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  fact  that  a  fair  propor- 
tion of  the  graduates  of  the  school  quickly  become  journeymen 
workmen  and  earn  journeymen  wages.  The  phenomenal  success 
of  the  graduates  is  the  cause  for  the  large  demand  for  admission, 
and  indeed  many  of  the  applicants  are  willing  to  wait  a  year  to 
be  admitted  to  the  school.  I  might  say  that  while  this  school  was 
originally  instituted  only  for  boys  of  foreign  birth,  we  have  of 
late  years  allowed  those  born  in  America  to  partake  of  its  bene- 
fits, but  it  is  true  in  this  school,  as  in  our  agricultural  school, 
that  the  foreign  born  boy  is  more  efficient,  earnest  and  successful. 

The  usefulness  of  an  institution  to  teach  mechanical  trades  to 
Jewish  boys  must  be  apparent  to  all.  The  success  that  has 
attended  the  effort  will  have  a  far-reaching  and  cumulative  effect 
in  years  to  come  In  the  ten  years  that  this  school  has  been  estab- 
lished on  its  present  basis,  its  number  of  graduates  has  grown 
from  50  per  year  to  over  250  per  year,  and  the  percentage  of 
those  who  have  failed  to  follow  the  trade  to  which  we  have  trained 
them,  is  insignificant. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  163 

Fourth — Woodbine  and  Other  Industrial  Activities. 

One  of  the  desires  of  the  Baron  cle  Hirsch  was  the  establish- 
ment of  an  agricultural  and  industrial  colony  in  this  country 
where  the  newly  arrived  immigrant  might  settle,  and  one  of  the 
first  acts  of  the  trustees  of  the  Fund  in  furtherance  of  this  wish, 
was  the  purchase  in  the  fall  of  1891  of  a  tract  of  land  over  5,000 
acres  in  southern  New  Jersey  where  the  town  of  Woodbine  was 
established.  On  this  tract  a  town  site  was  laid  out,  and  the  sur- 
rounding country  was  set  apart  for  farms. 

The  scheme  of  the  town  provided  that  the  streets  should  be 
wide  and  that  there  should  be  a  space  of  at  least  50  feet  between 
each  of  the  houses,  and  a  separate  location  was  provided  for 
factory  buildings,  and  at  the  same  time  a  number  of  farms  were 
laid  out  and  farm  houses  built.  The  town  is  supplied  with  water, 
and  has  its  own  electric  light  and  power  plant,  furnishing  light 
and  water  to  the  inhabitants  and  power  to  the  industries. 

The  town  has  had  many  vicissitudes,  but  is  to-day  a  self- 
governing  and  self-respecting  community  with  about  2,000  in- 
habitants, a  large  proportion  of  whom  rely  for  their  subsistence 
on  the  several  factories  which  have  been  built  and  established 
there  through  the  agency  of  the  fund.  The  payrolls  of  these 
factories  amount  to  about  $150,000  per  annum,  and  the  average 
wages  paid  to  adults  and  minors  compare  favorably  with  those 
paid  in  any  town  of  similar  size  in  this  country. 

Most  of  the  heads  of  families  own  their  own  houses,  for  the 
Fund  has  made  it  possible  for  a  man  to  acquire  title  to  his  home 
by  a  monthly  payment,  amounting.,  in  most  cases,  to  one-half  of 
what  he  would  pay  for  three  rooms  in  a  crowded  tenement  house 
in  New  York  city.  These  small  homes  are  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  clean,  well-kept  and  have  small  gardens  attached. 

In  the  year  1903  the  town  received  its  charter  as  an  inde- 
pendent community,  and  is  governed  by  its  own  Mayor  and  Com- 
mon Council.  Every  municipal  office  is  filled  by  a  Jew,  and  the 
affairs  of  the  town  have  always  been  well  and  economically 
administered. 

When  the  colony  was  first  started  we  were  obliged  to  subsidize 
all  industries  that  we  induced  to  locate  there,  in  order  to  pro- 


164  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

vide  employment  for  the  immigrants  whom  we  brought  there. 
But  even  with  all  the  fostering  care  and  large  financial  assistance 
which  we  gave  it.  the  success  of  the  colony  was  for  many  years 
in  doubt,  but  we  are  able  now  to  say  that  the  industries  of  Wood- 
bine are  practically  on  a  self-sustaining  basis,  the  only  aid 
which  they  receive  from  the  fund  being  the  grant  in  a  few 
cases  of  free  rent,  power  and  light,  which  is  no  greater  induce- 
ment than  is  held  out  by  other  small  towns  to  manufacturing 
concerns. 

Woodbine  is  situated  in  the  southern  part  of  New  Jersey,  not 
many  miles  from  Cape  May,  and  has  a  sandy  soil  that  has  no 
very  inviting  aspect  to  the  casual  visitor,  but  which,  nevertheless, 
yields  good  returns,  if  properly  cultivated.  When  the  town  was 
established  by  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund,  it  was  intended  that 
its  inhabitants  should  be  industrial  workers  and  farmers,  and  a 
large  part  of  the  tract  of  5,000  acres  owned  by  the  fund  was 
divided  into  small  farms,  and  a  number  of  farmers  were  settled 
on  them.  While  a  small  proportion  of  those  farmers  have  been 
able  to  make  a  living  and  improve  their  condition,  it  is  but  fair 
to  say  that  as  a  farming  experiment  Woodbine  has  not  been  a 
success,  partly  because  of  its  distance  from  a  profitable  market. 
and  partly  because  most  of  the  men  had  no  previous  experience 
in  cultivation  of  land.  It  was  found  also  that  one  of  the  causes 
that  operated  against  the  success  of  the  farmer,  was  the  induce- 
ment the  factory  held  out  to  him  to  employ  him  at  weekly  wages, 
and  it  is  a  well  recognized  fact  that  a  man  cannot  be  a  worker  in 
a  factory  and  a  successful  farmer  at  the  same  time. 

We  have  lately  undertaken  to  develop  on  new  lines  the  farm- 
ing possibilities  of  Woodbine,  and  with  the  knowledge  gained  by 
years  of  experience,  we  have  every  hope  of  being  able  within  a 
few  years,  to  cite  Woodbine  as  a  success  from  an  agricultural  as 
well  as  from  an  industrial  standpoint. 

In  South  Jersey,  about  twenty  miles  from  Woodbine,  but 
nearer  to  Philadelphia,  are  the  other  so-called  South  Jersey 
Colonies  of  Alliance,  Rosenhayn,  Carmel,  Norma  and  Brotman- 
ville,  which  were  established  in  the  '80 's  and  '90 's  by  various 
philanthropic  societies.  Since  1900  the  Jewish  Agricultural  and 
Industrial  Aid  Society  has  undertaken  the  duty  of  bettering  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  165 

physical  and  moral  condition  of  these  early  settlers.  We  have 
established  several  modern  factories;  maintained  night  schools 
and  provided  scholarships  in  high  schools  in  neighboring  towns 
for  pupils  of  promise ;  co-operated  in  building  a  canning  factory ; 
provided  a  resident  director  of  social  and  educational  work,  who 
has  done  and  is  doing  much  to  elevate  the  general  moral  tone 
of  the  community;  provided  free  lecture  courses;  built  social 
halls;  subsidized  resident  physicians;  established  libraries,  and 
have  in  numerous  instances  made  loans  to  the  farmers  of  these 
communities.  These  colonies  are  both  industrial  and  farming  in 
character.  The  farmers  have,  as  a  rule,  been  successful,  but  the 
factories  have  not  always  prospered. 

I  do  not  desire  to  be  understood  as  advocating  the  establish- 
ment of  other  colonies  on  the  plan  of  Woodbine.  The  amount 
of  money,  time  and  energy  spent  in  bringing  this  industrial  settle- 
ment to  its  present  condition  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  th.3 
number  of  our  co-religionists  who  were  benefited  thereby — this 
same  amount  of  money  spent  in  removal  work  or  in  building  up 
a  farming  class  among  the  Jews  would  produce  better,  surer  and 
more  far-reaching  results. 

At  one  time  it  was  believed  that  we  could  remove  large  num- 
bers of  factory  workers  from  the  cities  to  rural  communities, 
provided  we  could  supply  them  with  employment  at  the  place  to 
which  they  were  sent,  and  several  large  and  costly  experiments 
were  undertaken  on  that  line,  but  they  have  all  proved  failures. 
It  was  found  that  we  could  successfully  remove  city  dwellers  to 
points  where  there  was  an  established  industry  offering  them 
employment,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  work  of  the  removal  office ;  it 
was  also  found  that  we  could  establish  industries  in  a  place  like 
Woodbine,  where  we  already  had  a  sufficient  permanent  popu- 
lation to  supply  the  industry  with  workmen;  but  it  was  not 
found  either  feasible  or  practical  to  remove  both  the  industry 
and  the  industrial  worker,  for  reasons  which  it  would  take  too 
long  in  this  paper  to  discuss. 

Fifth— Agricultural  Work. 

The  founders  of  the  Fund  were  most  anxious  to  encourage  th«- 
Jewish  immigrant  in  the  pursuit  of  agriculture,  and  the  trus- 


166  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

tees  have  devoted  much  of  their  time  and  attention  to  the  carry- 
ing out  of  this  aim,  and  have  sought  in  every  way  to  induce  the 
immigrant  to  settle  on  land  and  to  become  a  farmer.  It  was 
thought  that  this  work  could  best  be  accomplished  by 

First,  teaching  the  rudiments  of  agriculture  to  those  who  were 
not  farmers,  and 

Second,  by  rendering  financial  assistance  to  those  who  were 
farmers  but  had  not  the  means  to  establish  themselves  on  farms. 
To  teach  agriculture  we  have  established 

First,  the  agricultural  school  at  Woodbine,  and 

Second,  the  so-called  test  farm  at  Kings  Park,  L.  I. 

The  Woodbine  agricultural  school  was  established  to  teach 
agriculture  to  boys.  It  was  founded  in  1895  and  seeks  to  give 
a  boy  such  an  amount  of  technical  education  in  the  school  and 
practical  training  on  the  school-farm,  as  will  qualify  him  for 
filling  a  position  as  a  helper  on  a  farm,  with  the  promise  held 
out  to  him  of  assistance  in  the  purchase  of  a  farm  of  his  own 
when  he  reaches  the  proper  age  and  has  demonstrated  his  ability 
to  manage  it. 

The  school  has  been  to  a  large  extent  an  experiment,  and  from 
time  to  time  we  have  changed  the  curriculum  as  suggested  by 
experience.  The  present  requirements  for  admission  are,  that 
the  applicant  should  be  about  the  age  of  18,  should  be  physically 
capacitated  for  the  work  of  farming,  and  should  have  an  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  English.  The  student  is  given  one'  year 
of  practical  and  technical  education,  and  then  secured  a  position 
on  a  farm,  and  if  he  retains  his  position  and  sticks  to  the  work 
and  desires  further  instruction  of  a  technical  or  practical  char- 
acter, he  may  take  an  advanced  course  the  following  winter.  The 
school  undertakes  only  to  give  the  boy  sufficient  instruction  and 
experience  to  enable  him  to  work  satisfactorily  on  a  farm  as  a 
helper,  and  makes  no  attempt  to  compete  with  the  many  excellent 
agricultural  schools  in  the  country  where  the  science  of  agricul- 
ture is  taught. 

The  problem  of  the  school  is  a  difficult  one.  There  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  finding  places  for  graduates  as  farm  helpers,  but  our 
main  trouble  heretofore  has  been,  that  boys  would  take  advantage 
of  the  opportunities  offered  them  by  the  school  to  secure  a  general 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  167 

training  and  education,  and  would  ultimately  forsake  farming. 
Nevertheless,  we  have  a  large  number  of  very  creditable  gradu- 
ates who  are  pursuing  agriculture  as  a  livelihood. 

An  equally  interesting  experiment  is  the  work  of  the  Test  Farm 
at  Kings  Park,  L.  I.  A  tract  of  500  acres  of  good  land  was  pur- 
chased there  and  equipped  with  modern  buildings  and  farming 
implements,  and  houses  erected  for  12  families.  We  locate  at 
this  test  farm  each  year  about  12  families.  We  provide  the 
heads  of  the  families  with  work  as  farm  laborers,  teaching  them 
American  methods  of  agriculture.  We  pay  them  daily  wages,  out 
of  which  they  provide  for  the  support  of  their  families  and  pay 
rent  for  the  houses  which  they  occupy.  We  also  allot  to  each  one 
of  them  a  small  plot  of  ground  for  raising  the  garden  truck 
needed  for  the  use  of  his  family. 

After  a  year,  if  they  have  shown  a  likelihood  of  success  as 
farmers,  we  assist  them  in  finding  farms  of  their  own  and  enable 
them  to  settle  thereon  under  favorable  conditions. 

The  Fund  has  also,  through  the  medium  of  the  Jewish  Agricul- 
tural and  Industrial  Aid  Society,  provided  the  means  by  which 
various  agricultural  experiments  have  been  conducted  throughout 
the  United  States,  among  others,  the  Colony  of  Arpin,  A\risconsin, 
conducted  by  the  Milwaukee  Agricultural  Association,  and  which 
I  understand  will  be  fully  described  to  you  by  Mr.  Rich. 

All  of  the  agricultural  work  which  I  have  described  is  con- 
ducted under  the  auspices  of  the  Jewish  Agricultural  and  In- 
dustrial Aid  Society.  In  1900  we  found  that  our  agricultural, 
industrial  and  removal  work  had  become  so  extended  that  it  was 
necessary  to  found  a  separate  society  to  take  charge  of  "these 
activities,  hence  the  establishment  of  that  society,  which  is  main- 
tained partly  by  the  funds  donated  by  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund, 
and  partly  by  contributions  from  the  Jewish  Colonization  Asso- 
ciation of  Paris. 

A  very  large  part  of  the  funds  of  this  society  is  used  in  mak- 
ing loans  to  farmers.  These  loans  are  of  such  a  character  that 
they  could  not  possibly  be  obtained  from  any  other  source,  and 
therefore  encourage  and  aid  men  with  limited  means  to  be- 
come farmers. 

The  sum  of  $500  is  ordinarily  the  smallest  amount  that  a  man 


168  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

should  have  who  wishes  to  establish  himself  as  a  successful 
farmer,  but  the  society  makes  a  great  many  loans  to  men  with 
less  means  than  this  when  in  its  judgment  the  individual  has  a 
good  chance  for  success.  We  do  not  idly  encourage  inexperi- 
enced men  to  risk  their  small  savings  in  a  farming  venture,  feel- 
ing that  every  farmer  who  fails  in  his  undertaking  has  a  depress- 
ing effect  upon  the  general  farming  situation  among  Jews,  and 
therefore  we  discourage  men  with  insufficient  means,  or  those 
whom  we  believe  lack  the  capacity  to  reach  success. 

The  general  Jewish  public  has  but  little  idea  of  the  decided 
drift  towards  agriculture  among  our  co-religionists,  and  it  will 
be  interesting,  therefore,  to  learn  that  in  the  year  1905  947  indi- 
vidual applications  were  made  for  assistance  to  become  farmers. 
Of  that  number  416  possessed  $200  or  more,  60  possessed  less 
than  $200  and  230  had  no  means  whatever.  You  will  see  by  this 
that  476  men  were  anxious  to  become  farmers,  who  did  not  have 
the  means  sufficient,  in  our  opinion,  to  undertake  the  work,  and 
in  most  cases  these  people  were  advised  to  continue  at  their  pres- 
ent vocations  until  they  have  amassed  a  sum  of  at  least  $500. 

Our  method  of  handling  these  loans  is  something  like  this: 
A  man  has  $500  to  invest.  He  comes  to  us,  and  we  assist  him  in 
the  selection  of  a  farm,  which  costs,  we  will  say,  $1,000,  on  which 
he  can  get,  as  a  rule,  a  mortgage  of  $500  from  the  vendor.  He 
would  then  be  unable  to  start  farming,  as  his  entire  means  would 
be  used  in  paying  the  balance  of  the  purchase  price  over  and 
above  the  mortgage  which  the  vendor  is  willing  to  take.  Our 
society  steps  in  and  makes  him  a  loan  of  $300  or  $400,  which  he 
utilizes  for  the  purchase  of  livestock  and  implements,  and  to 
carry  him  over  to  such  time  as  he  will  realize  from  his  crop. 
These  loans  are  made  at  4%,  and  are  repayable  in  graduated 
instalments,  generally  commencing  two  or  three  years  from  the 
time  of  the  loan,  so  as  to  allow  the  farmer  to  make  proper  head- 
way before  he  is  called  upon  to  make  any  payment  to  us. 

This  farm  loan  work  has  grown  steadily  each  year.  In  the 
year  1900,  26  loans  were  made  of  the  value  of  $9,225,  while  in 
the  year  1905  134  loans  were  made  of  the  value  of  $155,804.10, 
and  in  the  year  1906,  up  to  May  1st,  83  loans  have  been  granted 
of  the  value  of  $33,573.97,  showing  a  steady  and  continuous 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  169 

increase  of  Jewish  families  who  are  making  their  living  from 
general  agricultural  work. 

To  what  extent  these  farmers  succeed,  is  best  shown  by  the 
payments  they  make  in  the  reduction  of  the  principal  of  their 
loan.  Of  the  loans  made  in 

1900,  28%  of  the  principal  has  been  returned, 

1901,  46%  of  the  principal  has  been  returned, 

1902,  34%  of  the  principal  has  been  returned. 

On  the  loans  made  later  than  these  dates,  the  date  of  repayment 
has  not  commenced  in  a  large  majority  of  cases,  so  that  the  figures 
are  not  of  any  value.  The  farmers  meet  their  interest  obliga- 
tion with  great  promptness,  and  the  average  delinquency  of 
interest  on  6  years'  business  is  only  8-10  of  1%. 

The  records  of  the  society  show  that  there  are  1,382  Jewish 
farmers  of  whom  we  have  cognizance  in  one  way  or  another, 
with  a  total  farming  population  of  7,491  souls,  cultivating  125. 
434  acres,  with  a  real  estate  value  of  $2,170,850,  and  with  a 
personal  property  value  of  $545,799. 

This  by  no  means  represents  the  total  Jewish  farming  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  because  from  experience 
we  believe  that  there  are  fully  as  many  more  of  whom  we  have 
no  records  who  are  cultivating  farms  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada. 

In  addition  to  this  we  make  home  building  loans  to  dwellers 
in  small  cities  and  villages  who  wish  to  acquire  their  own  homes, 
and  in  the  past  6  years,  83  of  these  loans  have  been  made. 

The  foregoing  completes  the  very  general  outline  of  the  numer- 
ous activities  in  which  the  income  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund 
is  utilized.  No  adequate  conception,  however,  can  be  given  of 
the  immense  amount  of  detail  and  executive  work  found  neces- 
sary to  give  this  work  proper  supervision. 

We  maintain  three  separate  organizations;  one  to  do  the  work 
of  the  Fund  proper,  one  to  do  the  work  of  the  Jewish  Agricul- 
tural and  Industrial  Aid  Society,  and  a  third  to  do  the  work  of 
the  Removal  Office. 

For  the  good  results  of  all  these  undertakings  we  must  perhaps 
look  largely  to  the  future,  because  the  work  is  of  such  a  kind 
that  immediate  results  are  not  always  discernible.  Certainly 


170  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  FOURTH 

those  branches  of  the  work  which  are  concerned  with  the  removal 
of  the  new  immigrants  to  places  outside  of  the  large  cities,  the 
education  and  Americanizing  of  those  immigrants  and  their  chil- 
dren who  elect  to  stay  in  the  large  cities,  the  teaching  to  a  large 
number  of  boys  of  trades  which  have  heretofore  not  been  gen- 
erally adopted  by  the  Jews,  and  the  encouragement  of  the  Jew 
to  become  a  farmer,  are  all  efforts  which  tend  to  the  uplifting 
of  the  Jewish  immigrant  as  a  class,  and  which  will  produce  good 
results  not  only  now,  but  to  a  much  greater  extent  in  the  years 
to  come. 

It  showed  remarkable  foresight  on  the  part  of  the  founder  of 
the  fund  when,  realizing  that  America  would  naturally  attract 
a  great  many  of  the  Jews  of  Kussia  and  Roumania,  he  decided 
to  devote  a  part  of  his  fortune  for  the  purposes  outlined  in  the 
de  Hirsch  Deed  of  Trust,  and  history  will  record  few  men  who 
have  accomplished  as  much  for  the  good  of  their  race  as  has  the 
Baron  Maurice  de  Hirsch. 

THE  PRESIDENT  :  We  are  certainly  very  grateful  to  Mr.  Ben- 
jamin for  this  very  clear  exposition  of  the  aims,  purposes  and 
accomplishments  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund.  I  may  state 
that  it  was  at  the  express  request  of  our  Executive  Committee 
that  this  statement  was  made — for  the  purpose  of  letting  the 
Jewish  workers  in  philanthropy  know  just  what  has  been  done. 

The  general  subject  of  the  afternoon  is  ' '  Agriculture. ' ' 

PLAN  OF  AGRICULTURAL  SETTLEMENT. 
A.  W.  RICH,  Milwaukee.  Wis. 

The  proposition  of  farming  by  Jews,  if  considered  in  the  ab- 
stract through  a  paper  such  as  I  have  been  invited  to  present, 
would,  without  doubt,  be  received  with  considerable  skepticism 
on  the  part  of  the  greater  portion  of  this  assembly,  owing  partly 
to  the  unfortunate  fact  that  a  number  of  instances  can  be  re- 
ferred to  where  such  undertakings,  from  one  cause  or  another, 
have  proven  unsuccessful,  and  also  through  the  further  fact,  that 
to  many  even  of  our  most  benevolent  men  and  women,  it  has  be- 
come almost  a  conviction  that  the  slow  plodding  process  of  farm- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  171 

ing,  is  not  calculated  to  satisfy  the  energetic,  ambitious  Jew  of  so- 
called  natural  commercial  instinct. 

However,  it  is  not  my  desire  at  this  time  to  discuss  the  causes 
of  those  unsuccessful  attempts  any  further  than  to  say  that  in  the 
majority  of  cases  the  reasons  for  failure  can  be  easily  traced  to 
the  lack  of  forethought  and  proper  preparation  to  meet  absolute 
requirements  of  such  undertakings.  In  other  words,  for  a  man 
to  become  a  farmer  his  will  alone  to  work  hard  is  not  the  only 
equipment  necessary.  There  are  many  trying  conditions  which 
he  must  be  prepared  to  meet  and  overcome  before  he  can  expect 
to  take  firm  root  as  a  farmer  with  reasonable  hope  of  success. 

Believing  that  the  most  essential  conditions  referred  to  are 
fortunately  provided  for  in  the  plan  which  forms  a  part  of  this 
paper  and  upon  which  the  trial  settlement  at  Arpin,  Wis.,  is 
established,  I  have  chosen  rather  to  submit  to  this  Conference 
existing  facts  as  to  the  inception,  progress,  and  the  apparent  out- 
look for  the  future  of  the  Arpin  settlement,  than  to  present  a 
theory  simply  based  on  views  of  my  own  or  upon  those  of  any- 
one else  on  the  subject. 

The  year  1901  witnessed  011  a  large  scale,  as  you  all  know,  the 
exodus  of  Jewish  people  from  lioumania,  owing  to  the  repressive 
and  tyrannical  laws  of  that  government;  laws  which  virtually 
deprived  the  Jew  of  the  means  of  a  livelihood,  by  debarring  him 
from  every  reasonable  privilege  of  a  citizen  as  well  as  from  the 
pursuit  of  almost  every  honest  and  suitable  employment.  This 
deplorable  condition,  the  outgrowth  purely  of  religious  persecu- 
tion, aroused  the  utmost  sympathy  of  Jews  residing  in  various 
civilized  countries,  and  led  to  certain  ameliorative  measures  in 
behalf  of  the  unfortunate  victims.  Thus,  through  the  aid  of 
the  munificent  legacy  of  that  nature's  nobleman,  the  lamented 
Baron  de  Hirsch,  thousands  of  these  refugees  were  aided  not 
only  in  finding  homes  in  this  blessed  country  of  ours,  but  also 
to  obtain  employment  whereby  to  maintain  themselves  and  their 
families. 

After  the  first  one  hundred  thousand  or  more  of  these  poor 
immigrants  had  landed  in  the  city  of  New  York,  thoughtful  and 
benevolent  minds  began  to  realize  the  imperative  necessity  of 
distributing  at  least  a  portion  of  these  newcomers  into  various 


172  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

parts  of  this  country,  in  order  to  avoid  such  serious  consequences 
as  might  result  from  the  congestion  in  the  already  thickly-popu- 
lated districts  of  the  seaport  cities. 

For  this  special  purpose,  the  Industrial  Kemoval  Office  was 
established  in  New  York  city  under  the  guidance  of  that  inde- 
fatigable and  zealous  worker,  Cyrus  L.  Sulzberger ;  and  through 
a  visit  from  him,  Milwaukee  was  among  the  first  cities  to  enlist  in 
the  work  of  removal,  and  records  show  that  in  a  period  of  about 
two  and  a  half  years  the  Industrial  Aid  Society  of  that  city 
placed  at  work,  both  at  skilled  and  unskilled  trades,  nearly  800 
of  the  more  recent  immigrants,  and  later  on  united  many  of  these 
men  with  their  families. 

In  the  meanwhile,  possibly  through  the  remembrance  that  in  my 
youth  I  had  considerable  experience  as  a  pioneer  farmer,  the  idea 
of  creating  farmers  out  of  some  of  the  refugees  became  with  me  a 
matter  of  daily  thought,  until  finally  a  carefully  prepared  plan 
was  evolved,  put  into  writing  and  submitted  to  the  Jewish  Agri- 
cultural and  Industrial  Aid  Society  of  New  York,  for  its  con- 
sideration and  support.  After  considerable  correspondence  and 
several  conferences  with  members  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  that  society,  I  was  finally  authorized  to  organize  the  Mil- 
waukee Agricultural  Society,  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  under- 
take the  work  as  outlined,  and  to  act  as  trustee  in  its  behalf.  A 
moderate  appropriation  was  then  made  by  the  New  York  so- 
ciety, enabling  us  to  give  my  plan  a  trial. 

Thus  the  first  substantial  step  was  taken  with  an  appropriation 
about  sufficient  to  supply  seven  families,  as  in  accordance  to  the 
plan,  each  family  was  to  be  provided  with  forty  acres  of  good 
land,  with  live  stock,  implements,  a  suitable  dwelling  house  and 
other  incidental  expenses,  among  those  the  salary  of  a  capable 
foreman  who,  it  was  designed,  should  have  charge  of  the  settle- 
ment. 

In  my  original  proposition  to  the  committee,  I  had  planned  for 
a  settlement  of  eighteen  families,  assigning  to  each  forty  acres 
of  land ;  and  since  the  tract  selected  which  I  considered  ideal  for 
that  purpose  contained  720  acres,  and  was  offered  to  me  at  a 
much  more  advantageous  price  per  acre  than  the  same  could 
have  been  purchased  at  if  provision  was  made  for  only  seven 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  173 

families  (280  acres),  I  assumed  personally  the  responsibility  in 
the  purchase  of  the  additional  440  acres,  so  as  to  enable  me 
eventually  to  carry  out  my  original  plan,  calculating  that  if  the 
experiment  with  the  seven  families  proved  satisfactory,  the  New 
York  Society  would  doubtless  deem  it  advisable  to  make  a  further 
appropriation  which  would  enable  me  to  complete  under  its 
auspices  the  settlement  of  18  families. 

It  was  understood  that  the  first  seven  families  selected  to  be- 
come the  pioneers  of  this  settlement  would  not  be  required  to 
furnish  any  money  for  this  undertaking;  first,  because  they  had 
very  little  or  no  money  to  invest,  none  of  them  having  been  in 
the  United  States  more  than  two  years,  and  furthermore  it  was 
a  part  of  my  plan  that  the  settlers  should  serve  a  perio.d  of  one 
year  on  probation,  and  thus  to  reserve  for  the  society  the  privi- 
lege of  discharging  at  any  time  during  the  year  such  as  might 
prove  either  inefficient  or  undesirable.  This  particular  feature 
is  more  fully  explained  in  the  draft  of  the  plan  appended  hereto. 

The  first  of  December.  1905,  marked  the  first  anniversary  of 
that  settlement,  as  on  that  date  in  1904  five  settlers  with 
their  wives  and  twenty-three  children  arrived  at  Arpin.  via  the 
Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  Railroad,  with  two  car  loads 
containing  their  household  goods  with  a  few  farm  implements, 
and  during  the  subsequent  week  the  two  remaining  families,  in- 
cluding eight  children,  followed,  thus  completing  our  first  quota. 

Having  reached  our  destination,  where  we  hope  to  establish  a 
true  Zion  on  a  moderate  scale,  I  will  introduce  to  you  our  geo- 
graphical situation,  and  then  review  what  has  been  accomplished 
during  the  first  seventeen  months. 

The  so-called  Arpin  Settlement  of  Jewish  Farmers,  now  con- 
sisting of  14  families,  is  located  in  Wood  County,  Wisconsin, 
adjoining  the  village  of  Arpin,  150  miles  northwest  of  the  city 
of  Milwaukee,  and  can  be  reached  by  three  lines  of  railroad; 
the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  the  Chicago  Northwestern 
and  the  Wisconsin  Central.  The  village  proper  has  a  population 
of  about  200  souLs  and  contains  two  stores,  a  railroad  station,  a 
public  school  where  the  children  of  our  settlers  together  with 
other  children  of  the  village  and  neighborhood  receive  English  in- 
struction in  all  branches.  The  schoolhouse  is  situated  from  one- 


174  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

half  to  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  homes  of  our  settlers. 
At  present  about  fifteen  of  these  children  attend  the  school,  which 
has  in  attendance  about  the  same  number  of  non-Jewish  children. 

The  cities  of  Grand  Rapids  and  Marshfield,  the  former  con- 
taining a  population  of  about  6,000  and  the  latter  of  about  14,000, 
are  within  12  miles  on  either  side  of  Arpin  and  can  be  reached  by 
two  of  these  railroads. 

The  village  itself  was  established  about  twelve  years  ago  by 
Arpin  Bros.'  Lumber  Co.,  which  bought  large  tracts  of  land  in 
that  county  for  the  purpose  of  converting  the  heavy  hard  wood 
timber  contained  upon  the  land  into  lumber ;  with  that  view  the 
company  located  a  large  sawmill  there  which  furnished  employ- 
ment to  a  large  number  of  men,  and  for  their  accommodation 
quite  a  number  of  modern  frame  houses  were  built  and  later  a 
church  and  a  sehoolhouse. 

After  several  years'  work,  the  most  desirable  timber  suitable 
for  lumber  having  been  removed  and  there  being  no  further  use 
for  the  sawmill  it  was  transferred  to  another  locality,  followed 
by  most  of  the  employees  of  the  company,  except  those  that  pre- 
ferred to  engage  in  farming  instead  of  continuing  to  work  in  a 
sawmill. 

Thus  it  happened  that  at  the  time  the  Arpin  Settlement  was 
formed  (November,  1904),  several  of  the  houses  in  the 
village  were  vacant;  and  it  was  arranged  that  our  new  settlers 
should  occupy  these  houses  for  Ihe  term  of  one  year  to  enable 
them  to  enter  at  once  upon  the  work  of  clearing  land  and  pre- 
paring at  least  a  garden  spot  for  planting  the  first  seed  of  potatoes 
and  other  desirable  vegetables.  Owing,  however,  to  the  unusual 
severity  of  the  winter,  progress  in  the  above  direction  was  rather 
slow,  still  by  the  first  of  April  each  settler  had  cleared,  without 
any  paid  assistance,  from  two  to  three  acres  upon  the  land 
assigned  to  him,  a  portion  of  which  was  utilized  for  planting  the 
most  simple  vegetables  for  family  use.  After  that  the  remainder 
of  the  summer  was  largely  spent  in  making  roads,  clearing 
additional  land,  making  necessary  preparation  for  building 
houses,  digging  wells,  constructing  fences,  etc. 

In  the  month  of  August  we  began  to  build  dwelling  houses,  the 
plans  for  these  having  been  made  to  suit  conditions  and  at  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  175 

same  time  the  needs  of  the  settlers.  While  the  majority  of  them 
favored  the  erection  of  substantial  two-story  frame  houses  at  a 
cost  of  from  $400  to  $500  each,  two  of  the  men  whose  families 
are  small,  preferring  not  to  create  an  indebtedness  larger  than 
absolutely  necessary,  decided  to  build  log  houses  at  a  cost  not 
exceeding  $100  each.  We  have  at  the  present  time  upon  our  lands 
six  substantial  frame  houses  and  two  log  houses,  besides  a  num- 
ber of  small  barns,  sheds,  etc. 

Each  family  has  also  been  supplied  with  one  or  two  cows 
(according  to  the  number  of  children  in  the  family),  a  horse, 
wagon,  and  necessary  implements  for  clearing  and  cultivating  the 
land.  Incidentally,  it  may  be  stated  that  our  settlers  now  have 
cleared  on  an  average  about  ten  acres  of  land  and  hope  to  raise 
a  fair  crop  of  potatoes,  corn,  pickles  and  other  vegetables  in  addi- 
tion to  sufficient  hay  to  feed  their  stock  during  the  winter;  and 
if  this  season  proves  fairly  favorable,  the  proceeds  of  that  part 
of  the  crop  that  they  may  be  able  to  market  should  make  them 
absolutely  self-sustaining ;  whereas,  the  sale  of  the  cordwood, 
which  has  been  cut  during  the  past  winter,  should  enable  them 
to  make  the  first  payment  of  interest  on  their  indebtedness  to  the 
Association. 

Before  closing  this  review,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  refer  again 
to  the  " Probation  Feature"  of  our  plan,  which  gives  us  the 
right  to  discharge  undesirable  settlers.  This  provision  has 
already  proved  to  be  a  good  precautionary  measure,  since  it  en- 
abled me,  without  any  conflict,  to  remove  three  of  the  original 
families,  who  were  becoming  a  disturbing  element  in  the  settle- 
ment because  they  were  denied  certain  extravagant  requests. 
One  of  these  removed  men,  within  three  months  after  leaving 
Arpin  begged  to  be  reinstated ;  and  offered  twenty-five  dollars  to 
one  of  our  influential  settlers  to  prevail  upon  me  to  allow  him  and 
his  family  to  return.  Within  four  weeks,  however,  after  the 
three  families  left,  I  had  at  least  ten  applicants,  among  whom 
were  several  relatives  of  the  original  and  enthusiastic  settlers, 
desiring  to  locate  on  the  vacated  premises. 

One  of  these  came  direct  from  Scotland,  with  a  capital  of 
some  four  hundred  dollars,  two  hundred  of  which  he  gave  me 
.as  part  payment  on  his  forty  acres.  This  family,  composed  of 


176  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

husband,  wife  and  four  children,  are  now  comfortably  located  on 
their  homestead.  The  man  is  very  earnest  and  industrious  and 
very  freely  expresses  happiness  and  great  hopes  for  the  future. 
In  fact,  without  a  single  exception,  all  of  the  families  are  lavish 
in  words  of  gratitude— words  which  have  a  truly  genuine  ring  to 
them;  and  I  must  confess  that  at  times  it  is  difficult  to  judge 
which  feels  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness  in  the  apparent 
hopeful  conditions  prevailing  there,  the  settlers  or  the  projector 
of  the  Settlement. 

Of  course,  I  realize  that  it  is  probably  too  early  to  predict 
with  any  degree  of  positive  certainty  as  to  the  future  of  our  pro- 
ject; at  the  same  time,  judging  from  existing  conditions,  this 
much  is  certain:  That  a  solid  foundation  for  a  Settlement  of 
Jewish  farmers  has  been  laid  in  Wood  County,  Wisconsin,  where 
Judaism  in  simple  form  is  reverently  upheld  and  hard  work 
cheerfully  and  faithfully  performed. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  our  settlers 
abstain  from  work  on  the  Sabbath  and  on  that  day  as  well  as  on 
all  holidays  hold  religious  services,  including  the  reading  of  the 
Sepher  Torah  with  which  I  presented  them.  That  this  adds  a 
great  deal  to  their  feeling  of  contentment  need  hardly  be  em- 
phasized. Quite  frequently,  also,  and  especially  during  the  holi- 
days, they  also  have  in  attendance  at  their  services  co-religionists 
from  some  of  the  surrounding  villages.  And  as  soon  as  circum- 
stances will  allow  they  hope  to  have  in  their  midst  a  Melammed, 
one  capable  not  only  of  instructing  their  children  in  Hebrew,  but 
of  performing  other  religious  functions. 

In  conclusion,  I  feel  thorough^  justified  in  saying  (having  now 
had  nearly  one  and  a  half  years'  experience  with  the  Arpin  Set- 
tlement) that  the  outlook  is  highly  favorable.  I  have,  of  course, 
found  it  absolutely  necessary  to  make  frequent  personal  visits 
to  the  colony  in  order  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  require- 
ments of  the  same  and  occasionally  to  adjust  slight  personal 
differences,  which  arise  now  and  then;  but  at  no  time  did  any- 
thing occur  sufficiently  serious  to  threaten  the  disruption  of  the 
Settlement.  The  peremptory  removal  of  the  three  disgruntled 
men  and  their  families,  instead  of  creating  any  feeling  of  dis- 
couragement, had  the  effect  rather  of  clearing  the  atmosphere, 


NATIONAL,  CONFERENCE  OF   JEWISH  CHARITIES.  177 

and  of  rendering  the  remaining  settlers  more  energetic  and  self- 
reliant  than  before. 

I  will  now  conclude  by  reading  to  you  the  plan  as  originally 
submitted  to  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Jewish  Agricultural 
and  Industrial  Aid  Society. 

The  "Milwaukee  Plan,"  Adopted  &t/  the  Milwaukee  Agricultural 

Association  which  served  as  a  guide  in  Founding  the 

Settlement  of  Jewish  Farmers  at  Arpin,  Wis. 

1st.  Men  should  be  selected  with  a  view  to  their  physical 
strength  and  apparent  eagerness  for  the  undertaking. 

2d.  The  land  need  not  be  cultivated,  as  such  land,  if  in  all 
respects  thoroughly  desirable,  is  likely  to  be  too  high  in  price  for 
a  philanthropic  project;  but  the  soil  must  be  fertile  (clay  loam 
preferred),  so  as  to  be  suitable  for  general  farming;  thousands 
of  acres  of  so-called  cut  over  lands  answering  above  description 
are  to  be  had  in  the  central  west  from  $7.00  to  $20.00  per  acre. 

3d.  Such  lands  should  be  located  at  the  utmost  within  five 
miles  from  some  prominent  line  of  railroad,  as  a  distance  from 
seven  to  eight  miles,  or  farther,  from  a  railroad,  for  various 
reasons,  is  likely  to  prove  a  great  source  of  hardship  and  danger 
to  the  undertaking. 

4th.  Not  less  than  ten  and  not  more  than  twenty  families 
should  form  such  a  settlement  at  the  start,  and  each  family  to  be 
placed  separately  on  a  forty-acre  tract. 

5th.  A  thoroughly  reliable,  practical  woodsman  and  farmer, 
one  who  can  talk  German,  should  be  placed  in  charge  of  the  men 
to  teach,  guide  and  control  them  in  their  work  for  the  term  of 
one  year-,  such  man,  whom  we  may  designate  as  " Foreman," 
should  be  expected  to  work  under  instructions  of  the  president 
or  manager  of  the  Association,  and  to  render  weekly  reports  to 
headquarters  of  progress  made. 

6th.  The  men  selected  to  form  the  settlement  should  be  pro- 
vided with  all  necessary  implements  of  which  the  foreman  must 
keep  an  account,  as  the  property  of  the  Association  until  the  close 
of  the  first  year,  or  until  the  same  is  divided  and  properly  ac- 
counted for.  Each  man  shall  be  paid  five  dollars  per  week  as 
wages  in  full  for  his  work,  and  providing  the  work  and  conduct 


178  PROCEEDINGS  OP  THE  FOURTH 

is  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  management,  such  men  shall  con- 
tinue to  work  for  the  term  of  one  year  for  such  wages.  If,  how- 
ever, any  man  should  be  found  unsatisfactory  then  he  is  subject 
to  discharge  without  previous  notice  and  he  must,  with  his 
family,  vacate  the  premises  previously  assigned  to  him  without 
further  claim  upon  the  organization  of  any  nature  whatsoever. 

7th.  At  the  close  of  a  year  of  each  man's  continuous  service 
an  inventory  shall  be  taken  of  the  proceeds  obtained  from  his 
labor  (presumably  from  the  sale  of  wood)  and  he  shall  be  credited 
with  the  amount  against  the  sum  that  has  been  paid  to  him  for 
either  weekly  wages  or  other  purposes,  and  any  amount,  if  any 
there  appears,  that  he  may  have  earned  in  excess  of  the  amount 
paid  to  him.  shall  be  placed  to  his  credit  as  part  payment  upon 
the  forty  acres  of  land,  which  has  been  assigned  to  him  at  the 
price  agreed  upon  at  the  time  when  he  entered  upon  the  work; 
from  that  time  on  he  may  be  released  from  further  supervision 
of  the  foreman  to  rely  on  his  own  resources  for  maintaining  him- 
self and  family.  He  is  to  be  given  a  land  contract  for  the  forty 
acres,  upon  conditions  specified  hereinafter. 

8th.  The  terms  of  the  land  contract  shall  include  the  pay- 
ment of  interest  at  the  rate  of  four  per  cent.  (4%)  per  annum  on 
his  entire  indebtedness,  payable  semi-annually  until  two  such 
payments  shall  have  been  made,  interest  to  begin  one  year  after 
arrangements  are  entered  into  with  such  settler;  at  the  third 
semi-annual  payment  of  interest  there  shall  also  be  due  and  pay- 
able one  thirty-second  part  of  the  principal  of  the  entire  indebted- 
ness and  the  same  proportion  every  six  months  thereafter  until 
four  payments  on  the  principal  and  the  interest  then  due  shall 
have  been  paid.  At  the  following  semi-annual  payment  two 
thirty-seconds  of  the  principal  shall  be  paid,  including  the  interest 
then  due,  and  the  same  amount  of  the  principal  shall  be  paid  with 
the  interest  due  semi-annually  until  eight  such  payments  shall 
be  paid ;  after  that,  each  semi-annual  payment  shall  be  composed 
of  three  thirty-seconds  of  the  principal  and  the  interest  which 
shall  be  due  on  the  balance  of  the  indebtedness,  until  the  entire 
account  is  paid  up  in  full,  making  the  entire  period  nine  years 
from  the  date  of  the  said  contract,  or  ten  years  from  the  time 
that  each  settler  entered  into  the  settlement. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES. 


179 


As  an  example  of  the  above  calculation  to  show  the  manner 
and  exact  amount  of  each  payment  that  would  be  due  from  a 
settler  whose  indebtedness,  for  instance,  would  be  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  at  the  close  of  the  first  (probation)  year,  the  following 
figures  show  details.  We  will  suppose  that  the  settler  located 
upon  the  land  May  1st,  1907.  no  interest  will  begin  to  run  until 
Mav  1st.  1908 : 


Amount  of 

Amount  on 

Total  Amount 

Month. 

Year. 

Interest. 

Principal. 

to  Pay. 

May   1. 

1908 

$30.00 



$30.00 

Oct.    1, 

1908 

30.00 



30.00 

May  1, 

1909 

29.06 

46.88 

75.94 

Oct.    1.. 

1909 

30.00 

46.87 

76.87 

May   1. 

1910 

27.19 

46.88 

74.07 

Oct.    1. 

1910 

28.13 

46.87 

75.00 

May   1. 

1911 

24.38 

93.75 

118.13 

Oct.    1? 

1911 

26.55 

93.75 

120.00 

May    1. 

1912 

20.63 

93.75 

114.38 

Oct.    1. 

1912 

22.50 

93.75 

116.25 

May   1. 

1913 

16.88 

93.75 

110.63 

Oct.    1. 

1913 

18.75 

93.75 

112.50 

May    1. 

1914 

13.13 

93.75 

106.88 

Oct.    1. 

1914 

15.00 

93.75 

108.75 

May   1. 

1915 

8.44 

140.63 

149.07 

Oct.    1. 

1915 

11.25 

140.62 

151.87 

May   1. 

1916 

2.82 

140.63 

143.44 

Oct.    1. 

1916 

5.63 

.    140.62 

146.25 

$360.03          $1,500.00 


$1,860.03 


9th.  It  is  also  agreed  that  when  one-half  of  the  principal  and 
the  interest  shall  have  been  fully  paid  by  the  "settler"  he  shall 
receive  a  Warrantee  Deed  subject  to  a  mortgage  for  the  balance 
due ;  or  if  at  any  time  during  the  life  of  said  land  contract  or  the 
mortgage  on  the  property,  said  "settler"  shall  desire  to  pay  up 
in  full  in  order  to  be  released  from  said  mortgage,  he  shall  have 
the  privilege  of  doing  so. 

10th.     The  Association  also  niav.  with  the  consent  of  each 


180  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

settler,  purchase  an  insurance  policy  on  his  life  in  favor  of  the 
Association  for  its  and  his  family's  protection  in  case  of  death; 
but  if  the  indebtedness  to  the  Association  is  paid  up  during  the 
life  of  such  insurance  policy  then  the  same  will  be  assigned  at 
its  cash  value  to  such  settler  for  continuance  if  he  sees  proper 
to  do  so. 

The  special  features  of  this  plan  are : 

1st.  To  create  from  the  start  a  settlement  of  ten  families 
instead  of  scattering  the  people  in  single  families  among  other 
settlers  of  various  nationalities,  which  would  deprive  them  of  the 
religious  atmosphere  so  dear  to  them,  as  well  as  the  companion- 
ship of  their  friends  and  countrymen  without  which  but  a  very 
small  proportion  do  feel  thoroughly  contented  and  happy. 

2d.  Under  this  plan  the  men  are  selected  with  a  view  to  their 
physical  strength  and  fitness  for  hard  work,  believing  that  a  man 
who  has  a  strong  desire  and  the  physical  ability  to  enter  upon  a 
pioneer  farmer  life,  is  more  likely  to  make  a  success  of  the  under- 
taking, even  without  money,  if  reasonable  assistance  is  rendered 
him,  than  the  man  who  is  assisted  in  buying  a  cultivated  farm 
just  because  he  has  a  few  hundred  dollars  of  his  own  to  invest 
in  the  enterprise,  which  he  has  saved  through  several  years  of 
peddling  or  tailoring,  but  lacks  the  essential  elements  of  either 
strength  or  experience  in  hard  labor  of  any  kind,  which  after  all 
are  the  chief  factors  to  insure  successful  farming. 

3d.  The  proposition  to  engage  an  experienced,  intelligent 
farmer  to  superintend  all  the  work  of  the  settlement  and  to  lead, 
teach  and  control  the  men  in  and  about  their  work  appears  to  be 
one  of  the  vital  provisions  of  the  plan,  as  it  is  likely  to 
inspire  the  men  with  confidence  in  the  various  branches  of  their 
work  in  which  they  have  had  very  little,  if  any,  experience.  By 
this  plan  the  teacher  is  with  them  to  guide  and  instruct  and  thus 
avoid  groping  in  the  dark  and  plodding  along  in  an  uncertain 
fashion  likely  to  lead  to  serious  mistakes,  and  finally  to  abandon- 
ment of  the  undertaking. 

4th.  The  "probation"  idea  whereby  each  settler  is  employed 
at  a  moderate  wage  by  the  week  for  a  term  of  one  year  subject, 
however,  to  being  discharged  at  the  end  of  any  week  if  he  is  in 
any  way  unsatisfactory,  is  quite  apparent  as  to  its  intention. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  181 

It  has  two  distinct  objects  in  view — first,  to  inspire  the  earnest 
settler  with  energy,  perseverance  and  hope;  secondly,  to  enable 
the  management  to  dispose  of  undesirable  individuals  in  a  prompt 
manner  without  any  chance  of  claims  of  any  kind  against  the 
Association. 

5th.  And  finally,  this  plan  is  based  upon  the  idea  of  selecting 
suitable  men  with  families  who  have  not  been  fortunate  enough 
to  acquire  a  firm  foothold  in  any  pursuit  that  promises  the  or- 
dinary comforts  of  life,  men  that  consequently  live  from  hand  to 
mouth  and  have  very  little  or  no  means  of  their  own.  The 
estimated  cost  of  providing  such  settler  with  such  a  farm  and 
necessary  equipment,  is  as  follows : 

40  acres  of  land  at  $20.00 $800.00 

Log  house  and  barn 350.00 

Cow  and  chickens  40.00 

Tools  necessary  first  year 50.00 

One  horse,  wagon,  etc 150.00 

Provisions  for  six  months 150.00 

$1,540.00 

These  figures  are,  of  course,  subject  to  change  as  good  "cut 
over"  land  can  also  be  bought  for  less  than  $20.00  per  acre.  It 
is  also  possible  that  during  the  first  six  months  in  clearing  his 
land  the  farmer  may  obtain  from  the  sale  of  the  wood  cut  by 
him  more  than  the  amount  that  he  requires  for  provisions  and 
other  necessary  living  expenses. 

AGRICULTURE,  A   MOST   EFFECTIVE   MEANS   IN  AD- 
JUSTING THE  COMPROMISED  ECONOMIC  CON- 
DITIONS OF  JEWISH  POOR. 

RABBI  A.  R.  LEVY,  Secretary  of  the  Jewish  Agriculturists'  Aid 
Society  of  America,   Chicago,   111. 

It  is  conceded  on  all  sides  that  agriculture  must  prove  a  most 
efficient  means  in  the  work  of  properly  adjusting  the  social- 
economic  condition  of  persons  who  struggle  with  questionable 


182  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

success  to  gain  a  livelihood  in  the  large  centers  of  population. 
The  efficacy  of  Maxwell 's  slogan :  ' '  Take  an  acre  and  live  on  it, ' ? 
prescribed  against  the  evils  of  poverty,  is  questioned  by  none, 
and  its  application  is  continually  gaining  in  favor  with  all  think- 
ing people.  This  is  rightly  so.  Nothing  meets  the  situation  in 
the  large  cities  more  squarely  than  does  that  proposition,  and  it 
is  as  impossible  as  it  is  needless  to  catalogue  the  effects  agri- 
cultural pursuits  must  have  when  followed  by  the  countless 
thousands  of  our  city  poor,  upon  their  own  conditions  as  well  as 
upon  the  general  welfare  of  the  people  engaged  in  other  branches 
of  the  country's  industries. 

But  however  beneficial  farming  must  prove  to  the  poor  in 
general,  it  is  exceptionally  valuable  as  an  occupation  for  our 
Jewish  poor.  For  them  it  is  not  only  the  best,  but  perhaps  the 
only  means  wherewith  they  may  successfully  combat  against  their 
poverty.  For,  let  it  be  stated,  while  the  evils  of  poverty  are 
everywhere  the  same,  and  the  same  means  will  contest  them 
everywhere,  still  there  is  a  sufficient  difference  between  the 
sources  of  the  poverty  among  the  non-Jewish  poor,  and  the 
sources  from  which  springs  poverty  among  Jews,  to  justify  the 
claim  that  not  all  remedies  are  alike  applicable  to  stem  the  evils 
of  poverty  among  Jews  and  non-Jews,  though  these  evils  are 
practically  alike  in  their  consequences. 

Permit  me,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  before  I  enter  fully  upon 
the  subject  of  my  address,  to  make  clear  my  contention  as  to  the 
causes  of  poverty  among  Jews,  especially  among  the  JeAvish  poor 
as  we  find  them  in  the  larger  cities  of  this  country. 

It  is  generally  held  that  the  poverty  of  the  largest  number 
among  the  poor  is  due  to,  and  is  the  result  of  aversion  to  work, 
shiftlessness,  improvidence,  lack  of  ambition,  drunkenness,  etc. 

Accepting  the  correctness  of  this  theory,  AVC  should  indeed  have 
very  little  poverty  among  our  immigrant  JCAVS  from  Russia, 
Galicia.  and  Roumania.  Whatever  the  short-comings  of  these 
people,  it  must  be  admitted  that  their  capacity  for  industry  and 
economy  can  never  be  over-estimated.  Their  frugality  and  thrift 
is  justly  proverbial,  and  their  ambition  to  rise  in  the  scale  ot 
social  standing  is  so  pronounced,  that  it  is  steadily  being  usc.l 
by  those  ill-disposed  to  them  as  an  argument  to  justify  their 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  183 

ostracism  from  certain  circles.  Nor  is  the  vice  of  drunkenness 
common  among  these  Jews.  But,  in  spite  of  these  facts,  who  will 
deny  that  poverty  is  rampant  in  the  midst  of  these  people  ?  Or, 
does  it  require  the  discerning  power  of  the  scientist  and  the  keen 
insight  of  the  student  to  detect  the  signs  of  poverty,  and  to 
recognize  the  vice  and  evil  founded  in  misery  and  want,  among 
the  population  of  the  congested  Jewish  districts  in  our  larger 
cities?  Surely  not.  This  very  Conference,  a  conference  con- 
vened for  the  express  purpose  of  considering  how  to  meet  the 
situation  among  the  Jewish  poor  in  our  cities,  proves  the  con- 
trary. What,  then,  is  the  cause  of  the  distress  among  the  Jewish 
poor? 

It  would  be  as  illogical  as  it  is  impracticable  to  point  to  one 
particular  fact  and  ascribe  to  it  the  poverty  of  the  ghetto.  The 
conditions  there,  like  conditions  everywhere,  are  brought  about 
not  by  a  single  cause.  They  are  the  outgrowth  of  a  combination  of 
causes.  It  is  however,  not  difficult  to  discover  the  material 
cause,  so  to  say,  in  that  combination;  the  main  and  foremost 
factor  in  the  production  of  the  forces  that  operate  so  potently 
and  so  adversely  in  the  life  of  our  Jewish  poor.  At  the  root  of 
the  evil  is  not  a  malevolent  tendency,  but  a  deplorable  predica- 
ment. Not  mental  perversion  and  obstinacy  make  up  the  prime 
cause  of  the  distress  among  our  immigrant  Jews.  What  they 
suffer  from  is  physical  ailment.  The  pernicious  laws  and  the 
wicked  exclusions  under  which  these  people  and  their  ancestors 
were  forced  to  live  for  centuries,  have  so  shaped  them  physically 
that  they  are,  at  their  coming  to  this  land  of  stern  activity,  not 
best  fitted  to  cope  with  the  new  t  conditions  as  they  find  them 
here  in  America. 

It  is  this  plight  of  the  immigrant  Jew  which  makes  him 
amenable  to  all  the  miseries  of  the  ghetto  and  its  environments. 
\Ve  notice  the  sweatshop  with  its  horrors,  and  are  not  slo\v  in  ex- 
pressing our  disgust  and  condemnation  for  that  institution.  We 
are  ready  to  comment  disapprovingly  on  the  limited  range  of 
occupation  followed  by  the  Jewish  immigrants.  AVe  are  ready 
to  ask  why  are  so  few  Jews  engaged  in  the  larger  industries  of 
the  country?  Y\"hy  have  the  Jews  not  their  quota  among  those 
employed  in  the  iron  industries,  in  the  shipping  interests,  in  the 


184  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

builders '  trades,  etc.  ?  Again,  we  notice  the  delinquency  of  the 
women,  the  squalor  in  the  homes  of  the  ghetto;  we  hear  of  the 
>  frivolity  of  the  young,  of  the  criminal  tendencies  among  the  chil- 
dren, and  of  their  disrespect  to  parents,  and  we  stand  aghast. 
We  feel  that  these  things  deserve  and  must  have  our  attention, 
and  feeling  concerned,  we  ask :  ' '  Why  are  they ' '  ? 

Undoubtedly  more  than  one  reason  can  be  advanced  for  the 
economic  disparities  and  for  the  apparent  discrimination  against 
Jewish  laborers  in  the  lines  of  the  larger  industries.  However, 
the  fact  is  potent  and  clear  that  the  physical  condition  of  a  very 
large  number  of  our  immigrant  Jews  excludes  them  from  the 
ranks  of  those  who  may  find  employment  and  hold  it  at  the  im- 
portant industries.  There  are  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  among 
our  immigrant  Jews  who  are  willing  to  try,  and  actually  do  try 
themselves  at  the  work  in  the  foundry  and  rolling-mill,  who 
attempt  the  handling  of  freight  in  railroad  and  steamship  ware- 
houses, and  who  engage  in  all  manner  of  labor  where  exceptional 
physical  strength  and  endurance  are  required.  But,  in  spite  of 
willingness  and  effort,  not  being  equal  to  the  task,  they  are  soon 
discharged  and  lose  the  job.  Is  it  to  wonder,  then,  that  the  sweat- 
shop exists,  and  that  the  Jew  is  fostering  and  furthering  the  in- 
terest of  the  institution  where  arrangements  are  suitable  to  his 
conditions,  where  he  can  qualify  and  meet  the  requirements? 
Unlike  the  great  industries,  the  sweatshop  and  the  cigar  factory 
are  pre-eminently  institutions  of  "piece  work."  The  individual 
worker  can  here  easily  be  accommodated  to  work  fourteen,  and 
if  it  need  be,  sixteen  hours  daily,  in  order  to  eke  out  a  bare 
existence,  if  he  is  unable  to  accomplish  it  in  ten  hours.  It  matters 
not  how  we  consider  the  institution  where  such  dreadful  slavery 
is  tolerated,  the  immigrant  Jew  views  it  from  a  different  side. 
To  him  it  is  the  generous  benefactor  that  shields  him  against 
starvation.  It  is  an  exceptional  advantage  that  it  offers  the  feeble 
but  willing-to-work  newcomer,  and  he  is,  therefore,  not  slow  in 
helping  to  multiply  these  institutions.  Unfortunately,  our  im- 
migrant Jew  becomes  the  victim  of  his  own  creation.  The  afflic- 
tion which  suffering  in  his  native  home  has  forced  into  his  nature, 
finds  in  the  sweatshop  a  most  favorable  atmosphere  for  its  full 
development.  Here  the  toiler,  weak  in  body,  sits  at  the  machine 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  185 

working  more  with  his  will  than  with  his  physical  power,  sooner 
or  later  to  suffer  mental  or  physical  prostration  and  be  added 
to  the  number  of  completely  incapacitated,  a  class  not  insigr 
nificant  among  the  population  of  the  ghetto. 

Nor  is  the  apparent  delinquency,  and  the  indifference  to  en- 
vironment so  glaringly  noticeable  in  the  homes  of  our  Jewish 
poor  always  due  to  willful  negligence.  The  wives  and  mothers 
in  the  ghetto  suffer  from  lack  of  energy,  an  affliction  contracted 
in  the  stifling  atmosphere  of  a  life  of  inactivity  to  which  their 
ancestors  have  been  condemned,  and  in  which  they  themselves 
were  reared  in  "Darkest  Russia."  The  removal  from  the  Rus- 
sian "Pale  of  Settlement"  to  the  American  ghetto,  does  not  spell 
out  freedom  to  them.  The  surroundings  as  they  find  them  in  the 
ghetto  are  not  well  fitted  to  arouse  them  from  the  lethargical 
state  and  stimulate  them  to  useful  activity. 

Again,  on  account  of  the  physical  incapacity  of  many  upon 
whom  devolves  the  duty  of  supporting  the  family,  children  are 
the  bread-winners  for  an  abnormally  large  number  of  house- 
holds in  the  ghetto.  This,  in  not  few  cases,  affects  the  tie  of 
family  relation,  weakening,  if,  in  fact,  not  wholly  destroying  the 
filial  respect  so  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  household. 

Many  other  evils  that  prey  hard  on  our  Jewish  poor  are,  like 
the  evils  mentioned,  directly  traceable  to  the  victim's  physical 
state.  The  student  of  the  situation  in  the  ghetto  finds  the  bane- 
ful influence  of  physical  incapacity  on  all  sides.  It  is  the  spectre 
stalking  about  in  shop  and  in  home,  dominating  every  phase  of 
life,  a  concomitant  to  every  agency  that  operates  adversely 
among  the  Jewish  poor. 

In  the  face  of  these  facts,  the  question  of  how  to  relieve  the 
situation  in  the  ghetto,  finds  its  true  and  best  answer  in  the 
slogan  already  quoted:  "Take  an  acre  and  live  on  it."  Air, 
fresh  and  plenty  of  it,  is  the  first  condition  of  the  remedy  to  be 
applied  to  offset  the  evils  as  we  find  them  in  the  ghetto.  The 
free  and  open  country  is  where  our  immigrant  Jew  from  Russia 
and  Roumania  will  find  the  richest  boon  that  can  fall  to  his  lot 
in  America.  He  will  here  come  in  possession  of  what  tyranny 
and  oppression  has  robbed  him  of.  He  will  gain  physical  strength 
and  mental  equanimity.  No  employment  within  the  range  of 


186  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

human  activity  will  so  readily  and  so  effectively  accomplish  this 
for  him  as  will  the  life  on  the  farm.  The  work,  hard  and  labori- 
ous as  the  immigrant  will  undoubtedly  find  it  at  first,  will 
strengthen  him  physically  as  he  is  at  it.  His  willingness  and 
eagerness  to  work  will  stand  him  good  in  his  first  attempts,  and 
he  will  develop  the  capacity  required  to  carry  on  his  work  suc- 
cessfully. 

Another  advantage  of  farm  life  and  farm  work  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  develops  self-reliance  and  inspires  self-respect.  Nor 
will  the  producer  from  the  soil  ever  fall  into  the  wicked  way  of 
promoting  a  ruinous  and  destructive  competition.  Unlike  the 
toiler  at  the  machine,  the  worker  on  the  farm  will  never  offer 
his  products  at  lower  prices  in  competition  with  his  neighbor. 
Rather  than  this  it  is  natural  for  the  farmer  to  ask  and  obtain 
for  his  products  the  highest  market  price  possible.  Farm  life 
also  tends  to  develop  a  sense  for  order  and  punctuality.  Farm 
work  is  of  such  nature  that  it  does  not  permit  being  deferred  to 
"some  other  time."  Nor  can  "overtime  work"  be  applied  to  it. 
Seed-time  and  harvest  are  distinctively  marked  by  God's  own 
hand  in  a  manner  that  commands  timely  and  punctual  attention. 
To  be  near,  and  in  touch  with  nature  is  the  surest  means  to  bring 
to  one's  knowledge  the  great  law  of  order,  method  and  regularity 
written  by  God's  own  hand  in  the  open  book  of  nature. 

Nor  is  the  potency  of  farm  life  less  effective  in  regulating  th.^ 
household  duties  and  in  enforcing  their  execution.  Aside  from 
the  fact  that  the  pure,  fresh  air  of  the  country,  and  the  proper 
wholesale  food  will  soon  mend  the  shattered  nerves  of  the  wife 
and  mother,  bringing  her  to  a  state  of  health  where  exertion  in 
useful  activity  is  a  natural  manifestation,  her  responsibilities  are 
in  the  farm  home,  so  clearly  defined,  that  any  evasion  of  duty  will 
only  help  to  uncover  her  guilt.  Meal  time,  bed,  and  rising  time, 
come  on  the  farm  with  a  stronger  demand  for  the  attention  due 
them  than  in  the  city.  The  turning  of  night  into  day  is  a  feat 
not  so  easily  accomplished  on  the  farm  as  it  is  in  the  city.  The 
failure  to  prepare  the  meal  in  due  time  cannot  be  atoned  for 
through  the  medium  of  the  "Delicatessen  Store"  around  the 
corner.  The  sheer  certainty  of  the  punishment  that  will,  on  tV 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  187 

farm,  follow  every  neglected  duty,  must  tend  to  correct  the  error 
and  stop  the  folly  of  delinquency. 

As  to  family  relations,  rural  life,  especially  the  life  on  the 
isolated  farm,  has  a  decided  tendency  to  strengthen  the  ties  that 
bind  husband  and  wife,  and  parents  and  children  in  family 
affection.  The  alienation  between  parents  and  children  we  find 
among  the  city  poor,  is  rarely  found  among  farmers.  Whatever 
the  ability  or  inability  of  the  father  may  be  regarding  the  work 
on  the  farm,  his  supremacy  in  the  household  is  never  questioned. 
The  very  law  of  the  land,  which  regulates  possession  of  the  soil, 
upholds  the  father  in  his  position  and  helps  preserve  the  dignity 
of  the  home,  should  there  be  a  tendency  in  the  children  to  dis- 
grace it. 

There  are  other  and  possibly  greater  advantages  than  those 
mentioned,  farm  life  secures  for  the  immigrant  Jew.  My  experi- 
ence with  Jewish  farmers  for  more  than  fifteen  years,  has  forced 
this  conviction  upon  me.  I  have  watched  and  studied  the  changes 
for  the  better  that  come  into  the  lives  of  the  poor,  down-trodden 
immigrant  Jews  when  they  are  removed  from  the  city  to  the 
farm,  and  I  am  prompted  to  state  that  agriculture  holds  the  key 
to  the  solution  of  the  problems  that  confront  the  Jewish  poor 
in  America.  In  fact,  I  am  tempted*  to  say  that  agriculture  is 
the  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  the  American  ghetto. 

In  contending  for  the  proposition  that  farming  is  a  most 
effective  means  to  adjust,  the  economic  condition  of  our  Jewish 
poor,  I  have  nothing  further  to  add.  I  have  argued  the  question 
from  one  standpoint  only ;  from  the  standpoint  of  the  should-be- 
farmer,  emphasizing  that  his  removing  to  the  farm  is  conditioned 
by  his  own  physical  state.  I  am  sensible  of  the  limitations  of  my 
argument.  Other,  and  stronger  reasons  could  be  advanced  to 
prove  my  contention.  But,  though  valuable  from  a  social-eco- 
nomic side,  they  are  not  needed  to  strengthen  my  position. 
For,  if  the  condition  of  the  individual  who  is  to  become  the 
farmer  does  not  make  the  change  he  is  to  undergo  from  urban 
to  rural  life,  and  the  great  sacrifices  such  change  necessarily  in- 
volves, his  imperative  duty,  all  other  arguments  for  the  proposi- 
tion are  mere  shifts  and  subterfuges.  If  the  Jew  was  to  go  to  the 
farm  merely  to  relieve  the  overcrowded  districts  in  the  city,  it 


188  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

would  be  his  duty  to  do  so  iu  no  greater  degree  than  it  is  the 
duty  of  any  other  citizen.  But  his  going  to  the  farm  is  not  so 
much  to  correct  an  abnormity  in  the  economy  of  the  common- 
wealth, as  it  is  for  his  own  individual  good  and  benefit.  In  this, 
I  deem,  rests  the  strength  of  my  argument,  and  it  is  this  point 
that  should  be  strongly  emphasized  whenever  and  wherever 
propaganda  for  the  cause  is  made. 

In  conclusion,  permit  me  to  say,  that  the  contrast  between  city 
and  farm  life  I  have  endeavored  to  picture  to  you,  and  the  in- 
ferences I  have  drawn,  are  not  mere  theories,  but  statements  of 
facts  gathered  by  observation  and  study  in  actual  life.  There 
is  now  a  sufficiently  large  number  of  Jewish  farmers  settled  in 
the  different  states  of  the  Union  to  afford  ample  and  correct  study 
of  the  question.  The  lives  of  many  of  these  farmers,  both  the 
life  they  led  while  yet  in  the  city,  and  the  life  they  are  now 
leading  on  the  farm,  are  well  known  to  me.  The  question  of  ag- 
riculture among  Jews  can  no  longer  be  considered  a  subject  lack 
ing  evidence  in  fact  to  prove  its  feasibility  and  practicability.  It 
has  long  passed  that  stage.  It  is  no  longer  a  question  admitting 
of  academic  discussion  only,  but  one  pressing  for  an  immediate 
active  solution.  It  is  now  a  real,  life  question  with  thousands 
among  our  Jewish  poor.  The  time  has  come  when  the  Jew,  rec- 
ognizing his  own  condition  and  position  in  the  city,  is  ready  and 
anxious  to  go  to  the  farm. 

Said  the  late  Counsel  A.  M.  Simon,  of  Hanover,  when  during 
the  summer  of  1903  he  studied  the  Jewish  situation  in  America , 
"I  rely  on  the  sagacity  of  the  Russian  Jew  and  on  his  clear- 
headedness. He  will  embrace  the  opportunity  America  offers 
him  for  gaining  a  home  in  the  country.  I  have  full  confidence  in 
his  ability  to  establish  himself  permanently  and  bring  about  his 
complete  emancipation  in  this  country.  What  he  displays  in  his 
present  position  in  the  ghetto  is  not  the  manifestation  of  his 
true  characteristics.  It  is  the  after-effect  of  his  life  in  Russia. 
He  abhors  slavery  too  deeply,  and  loves  liberty  too  well  to  remain 
the  wage- worker  in  factory  or  sweatshop.  Help  him  along,  and 
he  will  go  to  the  farm." 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  189 

POSSIBILITIES    FOR   AGRICULTURAL    SETTLEMENTS 
IN  THE  SOUTH. 

DR.  I.  L.  LEUCHT,  New  Orleans,  La. 

In  presenting  this  paper,  I  beg  to  say,  that  I  am  not  employed 
as  an  immigration  agent,  to  earn  a  per  capita  tax  for  every  soul 
delivered.  Therefore  I  ask  that  my  statements,  as  to  the  .ad- 
visibility  of  settling  the  Russian  emigrant  on  Southern  soil,  be 
considered  to  be  the  result  of  the  closest  study  at  the  hands  of 
men  and  women,  deeply  interested  in  the  question,  and  who  can 
be  absolutely  relied  on.  I  hope  I  have  not  misunderstood  the 
task  allotted  to  me,  and  the  information,  which  I  hereby  submit 
to  you,  may  be  of  some  value  in  the  near  future. 

The  South  has  had  a  long  and  hard  struggle  to  break  the  ' '  in- 
vidious bar"  of  a  worldwide  mistrust  of  her  climate. 

Her  sincere  ante-bellum  belief  that  African  slavery  was  an 
indispensable  necessity,  not  only  to  her  prosperity,  but  her  very 
material  existence,  has  clung  to  her  like  the  shirt  of  Nessus.  and 
has  only  lately  been  torn  from  her. 

Within  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  colonization  in  the 
South  has  been  very  rapid  and  large,  and  it  may  be  said  to  be 
strongly  representative  of  all  the  white  races  of  the  earth.  To 
particularize  somewhat;  in  North  Carolina,  a  large  body  of 
Germans,  a  colony  of  Waldensians  from  the  Italian  Alps,  several 
colonies  of  farmers  from  the  northwest  of  the  United  States  have 
found  homes;  in  South  Carolina,  many  French,  Irish,  English. 
Swiss  and  German  settlers  have  found  homes  also ;  several  colonies 
of  northern  and  western  people  have  bought  large  tracts  of  land 
in  Georgia;  many  Italians  have  found  homes  in  Florida  and 
Louisiana;  several  Swiss,  German  and  Scandinavian  colonies 
have  been  planted  in  Kentucky;  a  colony  of  Finns  has  been 
established  in  Tennessee,  and  many  Italians  are  truck  gardening 
in  that  state;  in  Alabama  there  are  colonies  of  Scandinavians, 
Germans  and  Italians ;  there  are  twenty-five  thousand  emigrants 
from  the  North  and  "West  in  Southwest  Louisiana,  mostly  engaged 
in  rice  culture ;  there  are  one  hundred  families  or  more  of  Hun- 
garians in  Tangipahoa  Parish,  near  the  City  of  New  Orleans. 


190  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

Texas  has  the  largest  foreign-born  population  of  any  Southern 
State,  and  representatives  of  nearly  every  European  nation.  The 
Bohemians  there  are  computed  at  nearly  sixty  thousand  in  num- 
ber ;  and  large  bodies  of  Scandinavians  have  found  homes  in  two 
or  more  counties.  These  immigrants  have  been  warmly  wel- 
comed by  the  people  of  the  several  states  where  they  have  settled, 
and  have  been  particularly  successful  in  truck  gardening,  fruit 
growing,  dairying,  stock  raising,  soil  reclamation,  and  intensive 
culture. 

No  stronger  argument  in  favor  of  the  healthfulness  of  the 
southern  climate  and  the  feasibility  of  field  labor,  could  be 
adduced,  than  this  steady  stream  of  foreign  immigration,  through 
all  these  years. 

One  need  not  go  far  to  explain  the  healthfulness  of  the  people, 
as  the  climate  of  most  of  the  South  is  blessed,  by  nature,  with 
her  choicest  benedictions.  Her  winters  are  short  and  mild,  and, 
in  much  of  her  area,  scarce  deserve  the  name.  Her  summers, 
though  protracted,  are  full  of  refreshments  in  grateful  breezes, 
heat-tempering  showers,  and  invigorating  and  sleep-inducing 
coolness  at  night.  So  salubrious,  in  some  districts,  is  the  air 
which  fans  her  fields,  that  it  is  an  antiseptic;  and  fresh  beef  is 
dried  and  cured,  by  placing  on  a  pole  to  protect  from  depreda- 
tions of  beasts  of  prey,  or  cut  in  slips  and  dried  on  the  fences, 
without  any  taint  of  putrefaction.  And,  in  much  of  this  area, 
the  air  is  a  specific  for  many  neurotic  complaints,  for  nasal 
and  bronchial  catarrh;  greatly  alleviative  of  rheumatism,  and  a 
rejuvenator  of  the  old.  The  vicinity  of  Covington,  La.,  is  world- 
wide in  its  renown  for  its  healthfulness. 

There  are  aesthetic  aspects  of  the  South  in  her  bright  skies, 
her  year-long  flowers,  her  varieties  of  charm,  which  must  pass 
without  comment. 

The  scope  for  profitable  farming  in  the  South  is  varied  and 
marked  by  such  conditions  as  scarcely  obtain  anywhere  else,  and 
are  so  multifarious  as  to  be  hardly  enumerable.  In  agriculture 
(in  its  usual  import),  in  horticulture,  in  trucking,  in  stock  rais- 
ing, even  in  floriculture,  there  is  ample  room. 

The  soil  and  climate  of  most  of  the  South  permit  most  of  the 
products  of  the  above  vocations  to  be  raised  in  her  borders.  Thus, 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  191 

for  instance,  any  cereal  that  can  be  raised  anywhere,  can  be 
raised  in  most  of  the  South. 

In  stock  raising,  before  the  war,  the  South  was  renowned  for 
its  thoroughbred  horses  and  beef  cattle  and  its  immense  produc- 
tion of  farm  animals.  The  racing  stock  of  Louisiana  and  the 
shorthorns  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  were  the  foundation  of 
some  of  the  most  renowned  strains  of  these  respective  breeds  in 
the  world,  before  the  war.  In  a  number  of  Southern  States  are 
to  be  found,  now,  fine  herds  of  thoroughbred  beef  and  milch 
cattle. 

The  health  and  fecundity  of  sheep  are  almost  a  marvel.  The 
quality  of  their  wool  is  unsurpassed;  and  some  day  wool  manu- 
factories will  stud  the  South,  as  do  cotton  manufactories  now.  It 
is  an  unexploited  and  most  inviting  field;  as  is  raising  early  lambs 
for  the  markets.  North  and  West,  and  mutton  for  home  con- 
sumption. 

The  healthfulness  of  Southern  raised  farm  animals  is  another 
large  topic,  and  the  saving  in  food,  by  reason  of  their  being  able 
to  graze  every  day  in  the  field  in  winter,  on  the  most  prized  sum- 
mer grasses  of  the  North  and  West.  Thus,  year-round,  pastur- 
age, healthfulness,  saving  of  the  feed  that  would  be  fed  in  colder 
climates  for  their  sustenance,  the  chance  for  the  farmer  to  pocket 
the  value  of  this  feed,  these  and  more  aspects,  discriminate  the 
South  as  against  the  North  and  West. 

I  could  speak  here  also  of  the  raising  of  hogs,  but  my  Kosher 
conscience  will  not  permit  this  unclean  digression. 

Poultry  raising  is  a  very  eligible  field  of  industry  in  much 
of  the  South.  The  largest  cities  of  the  South  consume  many 
chickens  and  eggs,  and  millions  of  the  latter  are  imported  into 
the  United  States.  Broilers,  or  spring  chickens,  bring  fancy  prices 
in  the  North  and  West;  and  newcomers,  in  many  instances,  are 
conducting  the  business  of  chicken-raising,  through  the  medium 
of  incubators.  Fowls  of  all  breeds  and  species  do  well  in  the 
South,  and,  in  some  of  its  more  southern  sections,  get  little  or  no 
other  feed  in  winter,  but  grasses  growing  in  the  field. 

In  horticulture,  the  South  has  made  immense  strides  of  late 
years,  and  there  is  hardly  a  state  in  her  borders  that  has  not 
large  areas  devoted  to  fruits;  strawberries  and  peaches,  especially, 


192  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

whose  shipment  to  northern  and  western  cities,  early  in  the 
spring,  are  a  notable  feature  of  railroad  transportation,  in  refrig- 
erator cars,  and,  as  a  rule,  are  fancy  crops  to  their  producers. 
It  would  take  me  too  far  into  details  to  enumerate  the  many 
varieties  of  fruits  that  can  be  successfully  raised  in  the  South. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  no  area  in  the  world  can  equal  the  South 
in  this  respect. 

Trucking,  or  vegetable-raising,  is  another  great  development  in 
many  parts  of  the  South,  within  recent  years.  Its  proportions 
are  immense  in  some  areas,  and  the  transportation  of  the  various 
vegetables  is  a  special  feature  with  the  railroads.  The  markets 
are  in  the  northern  and  western  cities  in  early  spring,  and  the 
profits  have  been  so  great  as  to  not  only  develop  an  immense 
business,  but  to  bring  into  the  South  many  thousands  of  garden- 
ers from  the  North  and  West,  who  have  introduced  one  of  the 
most  stable  and  remunerative  industries  of  the  ' '  New  South. ' ' 

The  desiccating  and  preserving,  on  the  scene,  the  surplus  of 
fruits  and  vegetables,  raised  in  the  South,  affords  an  immense 
opening  for  a  profitable  line  of  enterprise.  The  South,  itself,  is 
a  very  large  consumer  of  such  products,  and  this  consumption 
will  afford  an  ever- widening  market;  and  it  also  has  a  great 
opportunity  to  supplant  a  vast  quantity  of  these  products  from 
the  North  and  West. 

Cheapness  of  living  in  the  South  is  a  very  important  matter, 
the  mildness  of  climate,  making  clothing  inexpensive  in  this 
country ;  the  abundance  and  cheapness  of  fuel ;  the  garden  fur- 
nishing fresh  vegetables  all  winter  and  much  in  the  summer; 
cheap  lumber  for  building  and  fencing. 

While  the  lands  of  the  most  of  the  country  have  much  appre- 
ciated in  value  in  the  past  few  years,  many  of  them  are  still 
obtainable  at  very  low  prices.  Much  of  this  cheap  area  is  virgin 
soil,  whence  the  timber  has  been  recently  cut;  and  large  tracts 
of  such  land  can  be  had  in  solido,  which  are  especially  available 
and  eligible  for  colonization.  These  bodies  of  land  are  in  a  health- 
ful climate,  ample  rainfall,  among  a  hospitable  people,  markets. 
railroads,  educational  advantages,  religious  privileges,  have  no 
equals  in  the  world  for  homes  of  happiness  and  opportunities  for 
prosperity. 


NATIONAL.    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  193 

It  is  impossible,  in  a  paper  like  this,  to  give  either  an  adequate 
view  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  South,  or  her  development 
in  later  years.  Her  waterways  are  invaluable  in  their  supplies 
for  cheap  navigation,  for  their  supplies  for  cities  and  farms ;  for 
their  stores  of  fish;  for  their  powers  to  run  manufacturing  in- 
dustries and  other  purposes. 

Their  water  powers  are  a  prodigious  and  almost  unexploited 
potentiality;  and  the  late  Abram  Hewitt  said  of  them,  that 
' '  they  are  upon  a  scale  of  grandeur  unequaled  elsewhere. ' ' 

The  South  is  surpassingly  rich  in  timber  resources ;  in  no  line 
of  industry  is  there  so  much  activity  elsewhere  as  in  lumber 
manufacturing;  and  railroads  are  incapable  of  filling  the  needs 
of  the  occasion  in  supplying  cars  for  transporting  lumber  for 
consumers. 

The  vast  mineral  resources  of  the .  South,  almost  untouched, 
largely  unexplored,  in  many  areas  doubtless  unsuspected,  are  to 
furnish  the  raw  material  for  the  greatest  industrial  enterprises. 
Its  wealth  in  coal  is  inestimable.  One  State,  West  Virginia,  has 
16,000  square  miles,  while  the  entire  coal  area  of  Great  Britain 
covers  about  12,000  square  miles.  West  Virginia,  Alabama.  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee  have  nearly  40,000  square  miles  of  coal 
fields.  Almost  every  Southern  state  has  a  supply  of  coal,  and 
much  of  it  is  easily  mined,  delivered  on  navigable  water,  some 
of  it  of  a  superb  character;  and,  in  places,  an  immense  store  so 
close  to  limestone  and  iron  ore,  as  to  constitute  a  combination  of 
advantages  and  possibilities  for  material  development  unequaled 
in  the  world. 

Of  bituminous  coal,  the  Southern  States  are  mining  over 
70,000,000  tons.  In  1880  the  United' States  (the  South  included) 
mined  only  a  little  over  40,000,000  tons;  and  mining  of  coal, 
South,  may  be  said  to  be  only  begun.  With  iron  ore,  coal  and 
limestone  in  such  close  juxtaposition,  Alabama  will  probably 
dominate  the  basic  steel  production  of  the  world.  As  the  basic 
steel  so  far  surpasses  the  Bessemer,  and  is  so  rapidiy  supplanting 
it,  this  would  seem  to  be  the  logic  of  such  condition.  It  is  amply 
demonstrated  that,  in  both  steel  and  pig  iron  production.  Ala- 
bama can  distance  any  competition  elsewhere. 

In  pig  iron  production,  the  South  furnishes  nearly  4,000,000 


194  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

tons  or  about  the  same  quantity  as  the  country  at  large  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago ;  and  the  activity  in  its  development  is  increas- 
ing beyond  any  measure. 

The  spread  of  manufacturing  industries  based  on  coal,  steel 
and  iron,  in  the  South,  is  the  greatest  marvel  of  Southern  de- 
velopment. Almost  every  product  marking  the  industries,  any- 
where, is  now  found  South;  all  must  soon  follow  the  logic  of 
development. 

One  could  devote  much  space  to  the  description  of  the  rocks 
and  stones  of  the  South,  which  are  of  large  varieties,  fine  quality, 
and  are  an  inexhaustible  store  for  future  residences  and  manu- 
factories of  the  South.  Some  day  these  stones  will  rear  and 
decorate  some  of  the  most  superb  palaces  on  earth.  Sandstones, 
limestones,  granites  and  marbles  are  among  the  resources  of  this 
vast  store,  some  of  them  unexcelled,  if  equaled,  elsewhere  in 
beaut}r  and  structural  qualities. 

In  fine,  one  cannot  at  all  enter  into  the  diversity,  abundance 
and  quality  of  the  mineral  or  subterranean  riches  of  the  South. 
Her  marls  and  clays  are  topics  very  inviting,  nor  shall  I  com- 
ment upon  oil  or  petroleum— a  most  sensational  theme. 

The  largest  topic  is  that  of  the  South 's  peculiar  product,  and 
the  industries  cognate  to  it — cotton.  This  plant  is,  as  it  were,  the 
imperishable  foundation  of  her  prosperity,  the  most  conspicuous 
feature  of  her  agriculture,  a  sort  of  preserve  or  private  domain 
on  which  the  agricultural  activity  of  the  rest  of  the  world  may 
not  successfully  intrude.  Such  is,  of  late,  the  wealth  of  the 
South,  that,  with  cotton  manufacturing,  organization  and  wise 
management  of  her  farmers,  she  bids  fair  to  make  of  this  product 
and  its  manufacture  such  a  source  of  wealth  that  it  is  absolutely 
dazzling.  Cotton  at  its  present  prices,  10  to  11  cents  a  pound,  is 
said  to  be  about  the  price  of  the  last  100  years.  For  several  years 
past,  the  cotton  crop  of  the  South  has  averaged  over  $600,000,000, 
which  is  nearly  twice  the  value  of  the  late  greatly  stimulated  gold 
production  of  the  world.  In  the  last  five  years,  the  South 's  cot- 
ton crop  has  yielded  $1,000,000,000  more  to  its  raisers  than  the 
preceding  five  years. 

Every  statement  made  in  this  paper  I  have  gathered  from 
sources  which  are  absolutely  reliable,  and  are  based  upon  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  195 

closest  study  of  this  most  important  question.  I  have  endeavored 
to  place  before  you  the  real  truth  of  conditions  in  the  South,  for 
the  purpose  of  inviting  your  most  serious  attention  to  the  ques- 
tion, whether  or  not  our  Russian  immigrants  should  be  located 
throughout  the  Southern  land,  in  order  to  become  self-sustaining, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  lightening  the  great  burden  of  our  north- 
ern cities.  I  know  that  there  are  many  who  conscientiously  op- 
pose colonization  of  our  Russian  brethren,  on  account  of  many 
failures  in  that  direction,  and  on  account  of  the  inadaptability  of 
a  great  many  of  them,  but  still  I  strongly  advise  that  a  beginning 
be  made— and,  if  this  view  will  prevail,  you  will  find  that  the 
Southern  people  in  general,  and  the  Southern  Jews  in  particular, 
will  do  their  share  in  making  welcome  those  forlorn  and  home- 
less strangers — helping  them  to  earn  a  livelihood  in  a  benign 
climate  and  from  a  generous  soil. 

One  point  I  have  not  discussed,  and  that  is,  the  religious  re- 
quirement of  the  immigrant,  which  I  deem  in  close  connection 
with  the  colonization  question— but  this  must  be  kept  for  a 
future  paper  and  discussion.  I  cannot  do  justice  to  it,  under  the 
limit  of  time  allotted  to  me. 

AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION— ITS  POSSIBILITIES  IN 
PREVENTIVE  CHARITY. 

RABBI  JOSEPH  KRAUSKOPF,  D.D.,  President  of  the  National 
Jewish  Farm  School,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

The  Committee  on  Program  displayed  commendable  wisdom 
in  setting  aside  one  afternoon  of  the  convention 's  limited  time  for 
a  discussion  of  the  possibilities  of  agriculture  as  a  means  of  pre- 
ventive charity.  That  act  declares  either  their  own  belief  or  that 
of  others  that  the  pursuit  of  agriculture  holds  out  the  promise 
of  relieving  the  congested  centers  of  Jewish  population  and  of 
restoring  to  physical  and  moral  health  and  to  self-dependence 
large  numbers  who,  by  reason  of  such  overcrowding,  have  become 
diseased,  defective,  or  dependent. 

It  has  taken  twenty-five  years  for  this  belief  to  mature.  The 
desirability  of  it  was  felt  from  the  time  of  the  first  landing  upon 


196  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

our  shores  of  refugees  from  Russian  persecution,  but  the  prac- 
ticability of  it  was  doubted  because  of  a  general  unbelief  in  the 
Jew's  willingness  to  enter  upon  agricultural  callings,  or  in  his 
ability  to  make  a  success  of  the  pursuit  of  agriculture.  Notwith- 
standing the  distinguished  record  of  the  Jew  of  the  past  as  an 
agriculturist,  it  was  the  general  belief  that  his  long  compulsory 
abstention  from  that  vocation  had  wholly  unfitted  him  for  it,  and 
his  long  enforced  crowding  together  in  the  Russian  Pale  of 
Settlement  has  disqualified  him  for  the  isolation  which,  to  a 
greater  or  lesser  extent,  rural  habitation  involves.  And  these 
doubts  seemed  more  than  verified  by  the  failures  that  attended 
the  few  attempts  that  had  been  made,  some  ten  or  twenty  years 
ago,  at  settling  Jewish  immigrants  in  agricultural  colonies. 

It  is  true,  many  of  the  settlers  failed.  But  their  failure 
is  to  be  attributed  not  so  much  to  their  unwillingness  to  till  the 
soil  or  to  their  incapacity  for  it,  as  to  mistakes  that  were  made  in 
the  organization  and  location  of  the  colonies.  The  organizers 
seemed  to  have  been  as  inexperienced  as  the  colonists.  They 
seemed  to  have  had  little  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  fertile  soil, 
advantageously  located  as  to  market,  constitutes  a  large  factor  in 
making  the  pursuit  of  agriculture  attractive  and  profitable. 
Neither  seemed  to  have  had  an  adequate  understanding  of  th« 
fact  that  prosperous  farmers  cannot  be  made,  in  a  year  or  so,  of 
peddlers  and  petty  traders,  who  are  physically  weak  and  who 
lack  that  brawn  that  constitutes  a  large  part  of  the  capital  of  a 
husbandman,  who  are  uninured  to  hard  outdoor  labor,  whose  past 
lives  little  fitted  them  for  rough  and  exhausting  pioneer  work, 
such  as  clearing  forests  and  brush-land,  draining  swamps,  build- 
ing homes,  fertilizing  wildernesses  and  the  like. 

To  their  lasting  credit  be  it  told  that  many  of  them  tried  hard 
enough,  and  a  goodly  number  of  them  took  root,  and  some  of 
them  have  persevered  in  it,  with  considerable  success,  to  this  day, 
showing  only  too  clearly  what  signal  success  might  have  been 
achieved  had  mature  experience  guided  the  choice  of  land  and  of 
those  who  were  to  till  it. 

Another  factor  that  militated  against  making  the  attempted 
colonies  successful  was  their  ignorance  of  modern  practical  and 
scientific  methods  of  agriculture.  For  the  securing  of  a  mere 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  197 

living  the  method  of  farming  in  vogue  in  the  least  progressive 
parts  of  Europe  might  have  sufficed ;  but  agriculture  pursued  for 
profit  requires  a  knowledge  of  practical  and  scientific  methods 
so  as  to  enable  labor  and  soil  to  yield  the  largest  possible  results. 

Such  knowledge  was  not  possessed  by  the  colonists,  and  for 
the  imparting  of  it  no  provision  had  been  made  to  equip  at  least 
the  young  with  what  their  elders  lacked.  The  consequences,  as 
might  well  have  been  foreseen,  were  disastrous.  The  younger 
generation  found  little  allurement  in  a  life  that  was  all  hardship, 
isolation,  and  privation,  and  so  they  struck  out  for  the  city, 
whither  they  soon  drew  their  elders  after  them. 

But  the  mistakes  have  been  recognized.  Provisions  have  been 
made  to  make  a  repetition  of  past  failures  impossible.  Two  agri- 
cultural schools  are  now  at  work  training  scores  of  Jewish  lads 
in  practical  and  scientific  agriculture,  for  a  profitable  pursuit  of 
the  honored  calling  of  their  ancestors,  and  for  successful  location 
and  leadership  of  Jewish  colonies. 

Graduates  of  these  schools  have  laid  to  rest  every  doubt  that 
has  hitherto  been  entertained  as  to  the  Jew's  fitness  for  agricul- 
ture or  as  to  his  willingness  to  take  it  up  as  a  life  calling.  Quite 
a  number  of  them  are  to-day  employed  by  the  Agricultural  De- 
partment of  the  United  States  Government.  The  Secretary  of 
Agriculture  has  repeatedly  spoken  and  written  of  the  excellence 
of  their  work.  Others  are  creditably  filling  positions  of  trust  and 
responsibility  either  as  managers  of  estates  or  as  foremen,  gar- 
deners, horticulturists,  orchardists.  florists,  dairymen,  poultrymen 
and  the  like.  The  wages  they  receive  are  considerably  in  excess 
of  those  earned  by  the  average  young  man  of  their  age  in  ghetto 
sweatshops  or  in  city  stores,  to  say  nothing  of  the  infinite  superi- 
ority, as  to  physical  and  moral  health,  of  the  work  in  which  they 
are  engaged. 

The  mistakes  of  former  days  have  been  recognized  also  in 
another  direction.  Jewish  farmers  have  recently  been  located  in 
accordance  with  a  plan  quite  different  from  the  one  that  was 
followed  a  score  of  years  ago.  Due  regard  was  had  to  proper 
land,  to  a  proper  location  of  it,  to  proper  selection  of  those  who 
are  to  till  it.  and  to  proper  incentives  for  keeping  them  contented 
in  rural  callings.  And  the  eminent  success  that  has  attended  the 


198  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

efforts  has  proved  conclusively  the  potency  of  agriculture  as  a 
means  of  relieving  the  congestion  of  our  large  cities,  and  of  les- 
sening the  disease  and  debasement  to  which  it  gives  rise. 

Naturally,  whatever  has  been  done  along  these  lines  has  been 
carried  on  on  a  small  scale.  The  knowledge  of  past  failure  and 
the  widespread  unbelief  in  the  Jew's  fitness  for  agriculture  have 
been  too  deep-rooted  to  command  the  large  moral  and  financial 
support  necessary  to  carry  on  the  work  on  a  larger  scale. 

But  the  time  for  doubt  is  past.  The  experimental  stage  is  over. 
The  most  convincing  demonstration  has  been  given  that  the  Jew 
is  as  fit  for  agriculture  as  any  other  man,  if  not  more,  considering 
his  superior  thrift,  temperance  and  practical  sense. 

The  appalling  physical  and  moral  status  of  the  overcrowded 
ghettos  of  our  large  cities,  the  dependency  of  thousands  on 
the  charities,  the  ravages  of  consumption  among  those  engaged 
in  sweatshop  work  within  filthy  tenements,  the  immoralities  that 
are  festering  on  the  very  surface  of  these  seething  pestholes, 
which,  in  the  City  of  New  York,  for  instance,  house  within  an 
area  of  one  square  mile  a  population  as  large  as  that  of  Pitts- 
burg,  Cleveland,  or  Buffalo,  the  constant  inrush  upon  the  already 
overcrowded  of  new  streams  of  immigrants — this  appalling  state 
of  affairs  makes  scattering  of  this  population  no  longer  a  choice 
but  an  urgent  necessity,  makes  colonization  of  large  numbers  of 
them,  under  leadership  of  agriculturists  trained  in  our  Jewish 
agricultural  schools,  the  most  pressing  duty  of  the  hour. 

Never,  in  the  history  of  human  kind,  have  such  enormous  sums 
been  expended  on  the  alleviation  of  suffering  among  the  poor  as 
at  the  present  time.  Millions  upon  millions  of  dollars  are  an- 
nually sacrificed  to  the  Moloch  Pauperism.  Buildings  upon 
buildings  are  erected  and  organizations  upon  organizations 
founded  for  the  care  and  cure  of  the  diseased  and  dependent  of 
society.  And  yet,  the  more  the  ravenous  appetite  of  dire  want 
and  fell  disease  are  fed,  the  greater  is  their  clamor  for  more. 
From  every  direction  comes  the  cry  for  more  money,  for  more 
hospitals  and  homes  and  shelters,  for  more  penal  and  corrective 
institutions,  for  more  charity  workers  to  take  the  place  of  the 
disheartened  or  the  despairing. 

And  a  far  louder  cry  than  has  hitherto  been  heard  is  vet  to 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  199 

resound.  From  the  Boards  of  Health  of  our  larger  cities  comes 
the  report  of  the  alarming  increase  of  disease  and  exhaustion 
among  the  poor,  of  the  frightful  havoc  of  consumption  among 
the  overworked  and  underfed  in  the  tenements  and  ghettos,  of 
the  thousands  that  enter  life  there,  born  in  disease,  with  disease, 
and  for  disease.  Prom  the  police  courts  comes  the  report  of 
the  deepening  of  vicious  and  immoral  tendencies  among  the  tene- 
ment population,  and  of  their  moral  and  mental  debasement  in 
quarters  not  only  unventilated,  unlighted,  filthy,  but  often  so 
cramped  that  a  single  room  must  serve  the  purpose  of  workroom, 
kitchen,  dining  room,  nursery,  hospital,  sleeping  room  for  the 
entire  family,  of  both  sexes  and  of  all  ages.  And  from  the  studies 
of  scientists  comes  an  ominous  prediction  as  to  the  future  harvests 
from  such  present  plantings,  as  to  the  onerous  burdens  we  are 
heaping  upon  our  children,  despite,  if  not  with  the  aid  of,  the 
millions  of  dollars  we  are  annually  expending  on  the  cure  of 
pauperism. 

What  if  we  had  known  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  what  we 
know  now?  "What  if  we  had  entered  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago 
upon  a  cure  of  pauperism  by  preventing  its  propagation?  We 
would  not  have  permitted  ghettos  to  spring  up  in  these  free 
United  States,  and  in  these  ghettos  an  industrial  system  that  first 
diseases  the  treadmill  slave  and  then  taxes  the  public  for  the 
caring  for  the  diseased  in  the  charity  hospitals,  or  for  the  rearing 
of  their  children  in  the  asylums.  We  would  not  have  deliberately 
created  the  disease  first,  or  suffered  it  to  root,  to  deal  with  it  at 
an  enormous  expense  when  no  longer  eradicable.  We  would  not 
have  allowed  its  indwellers  to  fester  in  congested  quarters.  We 
would  not  have  condemned  them  to  breathe  polluted  air  when 
their  enfeebled  lungs  required  large  quantities  of  oxygen.  We 
would  have  removed  them  to  the  country.  We  would  have  en- 
couraged them  in  agricultural  labor,  for  the  upbuilding  of  muscle 
and  morals.  We  would,  in  brief,  have  reversed  our  mode  of 
spending  millions  on  impossible  cures,  with  scarcely  a  dollar  to 
spare  for  possible  prevention.  We  would  have  spent  thousands 
on  prevention  and  saved  the  millions  we  are  now  obliged  to  spend 
on  the  maintenance  of  institutions  and  societies  for  remedial 
charity. 


200  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

"But  they  will  not  leave  the  ghetto  for  the  country"  is  the 
objection  with  which  our  cry  "Back  to  the  Soil"  is  frequently 
met.  That  objection  was  valid  at  one  time.  It  is,  however,  no 
longer  true  to  the  same  extent  it  was  in  former  times.  One  needs 
but  to  inquire  of  any  of  the  agricultural  aid  societies,  or  see  the 
applications  that  reach  our  agricultural  schools  to  see  the  change 
that  has  taken  place  in  the  attitude  of  the  ghetto  population  to- 
ward country  life  and  country  pursuits.  If  you  doubt  it,  then 
you  have  not  read  the  latest  threnodies  of  Rosenfeld,  the  ghetto 
poet,  in  which  he,  the  consumptive  sweatshop  representative  of 
all  the  sweatshop  slaves,  gives  passionate  and  morbid  utterance 
to  the  ghetto 's  yearning  for  the  sound  of  rustling  trees  and  sing- 
ing birds,  for  the  sight  of  waving  fields  and  flowery  meads,  for 
the  smell  of  fragrant  flowers  and  f reshmown  hay ;  then  you  have 
not  read  his  poem  entitled  "Despair,"  in  which  an  overworked 
and  overcrowded  sweatshop  slave  is  solaced  thus :  ' '  You  wish  to 
be  in  fields  where  it  is  airy  and  green  ?  Never  mind,  you  will  b«; 
carried  there  soon  enough."  Then  you  have  not  read  that  other 
poem  of  his  entitled  ' '  The  Nightingale  to  the  Laborer, ' '  in  which 
he  makes  the  beauties  of  nature  call  aloud  to  the  sweatshop  slave : 
' '  Enough  of  your  slaving  in  stifling  shops !  Break  away !  See  how 
nature  opens  wide  to  you  her  rosy  arms  to  press  you  to  her  joy- 
throbbing,  life-giving,  health-distilling  bosom.  All  are  there  but 
you,  and  all  ask  for  yon.  Your  part  is  there,  there  is  your  share, 
so  take  it,  oh,  take  it,  you  sweatshop  machine ! ' ' 

Another  objection  is  raised  on  the  grounds  of  lack  of  means 
to  establish  colonies  in  sufficient  number  perceptibly  to  relieve  the 
congestion  of  the  ghetto.  Such  objections  might  have  been  valid 
prior  to  the  organization  of  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish 
Charities.  It  is  possible  for  the  different  organizations  composing 
the  National  Conference  to  set  aside  annually  a  sum  sufficient  for 
part  payment  of  a  number  of  tracts  of  arable,  properly  located 
lands  and  for  the  expense  involved  in  the  starting  of  a  few  settle- 
ments. It  is  possible  for  them  to  provide  homes  and  the  neces- 
sary farm  equipments,  and  they  can  so  locate  these  as  to  constitute 
groups  of  settlements,  so  as  to  satisfy  the  social  and  educational 
and  religious  requirements  of  the  colonists  and  to  content  the 
young  as  well  as  the  old. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  201 

In  addition  to  farm  equipments,  they  can  provide  industrial 
shops,  so  that  field  and  factory  shall  mutually  supplement  each 
other,  afford  work  and  wages,  in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer, 
for  women  as  well  as  for  men,  for  the  old  as  well  as  for  the  young, 
and  what  is  most  essential,  provide  an  outlet  for  different  tastes 
and  for  different  skill  in  labor. 

In  charge  of  a  few  of  such  agricultural  settlements,  the  Na- 
tional Conference  can  place  a  practically  and  scientifically  train- 
ed leader,  a  graduate  of  one  of  our  Jewish  Agricultural  Schools, 
who,  besides  teaching  them  the  art  and  science  of  agriculture, 
will  watch  over  their  best  interests,  will  open  profitable  markets 
for  the  produce  of  their  fields  and  shops,  will  look  to  cheapest 
transportation,  and  to  all  other  matters  that  may  assure  success. 

After  the  settlements  shall  be  fairly  on  the  way  to  success,  an 
opportunity  can  be  afforded  to  every  colonist  to  acquire  his  own 
homestead,  on  terms  that,  while  working  no  hardships  on  him, 
shall  reimburse  the  organization's  original  investment. 

There  will,  therefore,  be  no  charity  in  this  plan  but  true  phil- 
anthropy. It  will  be  a  philanthropy  that,  though  involving  a 
considerable  expense  at  first,  will  be  the  cheapest  in  the  end.  It 
will  make  laborers  instead  of  paupers,  bread-producers  instead  of 
bread  beggars.  It  will  build  up  physical  and  mental  and  spirit- 
ual health  instead  of  Ghetto  degeneracy  and  disease.  It  will 
restore  the  Jew  to  his  original  Palestinian  pursuits,  and  there  on 
field  and  moor,  it  will  create  within  him  anew  that  moral  and 
virile  fibre  that,  in  ancient  times,  produced  kings,  prophets,  law- 
givers, bards,  inspired  writers  to  whom,  to  this  day,  the  whole 
civilized  world  does  homage.  It  will  build  up  a  body  of  people 
that,  by  reason  of  industry  and  thrift  and  intelligence  and  per- 
severance, will  enable  their  country  to  apply  to  them,  in  slightly 
altered  form,  the  words  of  the  Proverbs : ' '  Many  people  have  done 
righteously,  but  ye  excel  them  all. ' ' 

If  transplanting  of  large  numbers  of  these  people  of  the  Ghetto 
to  far  away  districts  be  deemed  too  hazardous  and  too  expensive, 
there  is  no  reason  why  small  settlements,  partly  agricultural  and 
partly  industrial,  might  not  be  established  in  villages  close  to  the 
overcrowded  cities.  Speedy  trains  and  trolleys  will  give  them  a 
sense  of  nearness  to  the  city,  and  to  its  religious  and  social  and 


202  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  FOURTH 

educational  advantages.  The  need  for  their  products  in  the  cit> 
will  make  their  labor  profitable.  A  number  of  factories  can  be 
built  in  such  settlements  to  furnish  labor  for  such  members  of  the 
family  whose  services  are  not  needed  on  the  little  truck  or  daily 
farms.  Little  six  or  eight  room  cottages  can  be  erected  and 
rented  at  a  price  no  higher  than  is  now  being  paid  for  two  or 
three  dark  and  damp  and  filthy  tenement  rooms.  By  easy  instal- 
ments, these  little  houses  may  in  course  of  time  become  their  own. 
The  agricultural  work  about  the  home,  such  as  the  raising  of 
garden  truck,  dairy  products,  flowers,  fruits,  poultry,  and  the 
like  can  be  carried  on  for  the  most  part  by  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, at  profits  larger  than  those  they  now  earn  in  the  filth- 
reeking  and  life-sapping  and  demoralizing  sweat  shops,  and 
which,  besides  adding  to  the  earning  capacity  of  the  household, 
can  help  out  the  needs  of  the  family  in  times  when  labor  is  slack 
and  when  the  industries  are  idle.  It  is  a  plan  that  has  been  tried 
abroad  with  marvellous  success.  It  has  restored  health  and 
morals.  It  has  built  up  real  homes  and  real  family  life.  It  has 
made  paupers  self-supporting.  It  has  fitted  young  men  and 
young  women  for  noble  careers. 

Even  if  this  simpler  mode  of  entering  upon  relieving  the  con- 
gestion of  the  Ghetto  and  of  lessening  the  enormous  drain  on  the 
charities  be  deemed  unfeasible  or  too  expensive — then,  if  the  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Jewish  Charities  is  really  serious  in  its  in- 
tention of  devising  ways  and  means  for  practical,  preventive 
philanthropy,  if  it  really  desires  to  build  up  the  physical  and 
moral  fibre  of  those  condemned  to  live  and  toil  in  the  pest-holes 
of  our  large  cities  and  that  make  necessary  nearly  all  of  our 
eleemosynary  institutions,  then  let  them  at  least  save  the  young 
by  making  possible  an  agricultural  education  for  the  hundreds 
of  Ghetto  boys,  as  well  as  girls,  who  are  desirous  of  an  agricul- 
tural training,  and  for  the  hundreds  of  others,  who  could  easily 
be  induced  to  take  up  an  agricultural  training,  and  thus  be  saved. 

It  ought  to  be  the  paramount  duty  of  each  organization  com- 
posing the  National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities,  and  of  the 
others  as  well,  to  lessen  the  number  of  inmates  of  our  eleemosyn- 
ary institutions  by  making  possible  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
pupils  in  our  agricultural  schools. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENC3    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  203 

Every  one  taken  out  of  the  Ghetto,  and  made  healthy,  vigorous 
and  self-dependent  in  the  country,  will  in  due  time  draw  hun- 
dreds of  others  after  him.  His  example  will  find  followers.  His 
success  will  stimulate  emulation.  His  physical  and  moral  health 
will  make  a  benefactor  of  him  who,  had  he  continued  in  the 
Ghetto,  might  have  become  a  beneficiary. 

AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 

DR.  H.  L.  SABSOVICH,  General  Agent  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch 
Fund,  New  York  City. 

In  presenting  to  this  Conference  the  subject  of  Agricultural 
Education  for  Jews  in  the  United  States,  it  is  impossible  to  treat 
it  independently  from  the  general  status  of  farming  and  agri- 
cultural education  as  carried  on  in  this  country. 

In  view  of  the  great  difficulties  Jewish  farming  has  had  to  en- 
counter in  the  past,  and  even  now  has  to  contend  with,  and  in 
view  of  the  general  standing  of  farming,  the  question  has  arisen 
in  the  minds  of  many :  ' '  Is  it  advisable  to  direct  the  energies  of 
the  Jews  into  a  new  channel  of  activity — agriculture  ? ' '  We  will 
not  consider  Jewish  farming  here  as  the  result  of  a  spontane- 
ous movement  toward  farming,  but  as  the  result  of  certain  phil- 
anthropic efforts  to  regulate  this  spontaneous  movement,  and 
prevent,  if  possible,  an  unnecessary  waste  of  means,  energy  and 
enthusiasm  in  a  large  number  of  our  co-religionists,  principally 
newcomers,  in  their  efforts  to  better  their  material  conditions.  I 
will  therefore  consider  here  Jewish  farming  as  one  of  the  pre- 
ventive problems  which  present  themselves  to  Jewish  philan- 
thropy in  the  United  States. 

The  question  of  the  advisability  of  fostering  and  encouraging 
Jewish  farming  by  giving  Jewish  lads  an  agricultural  training 
is  not  an  idle  one. 

1.  Farming  in  the  United  States— In  comparing  the  numbers 
engaged  in  various  employments,  the  enumerators  of  the  twelfth 
census  report  that  out  of  29,287,070  persons  of  ten  years  of  age 
and  over  who  were  in  1900  engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  10,- 
438,219,  or  35  6-10  per  cent,,  were  following  agricultural  pur- 


204  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

suits,  while  24  3-10  per  cent,  were  engaged  in  manufacturing  and 
mechanical  arts;  $20,439,901,164  were  invested  in  farming,  and 
$9,831,486,500  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  trades.  There- 
fore farming  is  still  the  most  important  industry  in  the  United 
States. 

It  is  true  that  during  the  past  twenty  years  the  number  en- 
gaged in  manufacturing  has  increased  86  2-10  per  cent.,  while  in 
agriculture,  only  34  6-10  per  cent.,  and  the  produce  of  manu- 
facture has  in  1900  exceeded  the  value  of  farm  products  by  over 
$2,000,000,000,  namely,  $5,981,454,234,  representing  the  value 
of  manufactured  goods  and  $3,764,177,706,  farming  products. 

Up  to  1880  agriculture  was  the  principal  source  of  wealth  in 
the  United  States,  but  thanks  to  the  wonderful  development  of 
agriculture,  as  well  as  mineral  resources  in  this  country,  and 
highly  developed  transportation  facilities,  the  United  States  has 
risen  to  the  first  position  among  the  manufacturing  nations  of  the 
world 

At  this  juncture  I  wish  to  say  that  the  prevailing  belief  that 
the  rural  districts  in  this  country  are  losing  their  population  and 
that  the  cityward  movement  is  on  the  increase,  is  not  correct. 
The  figures  given  by  the  twelfth  census  show  that  the  urban 
population  during  the  decade  ending  in  1900  has  increased  only 
36  3-4  per  cent.,  while  during  the  decade  ending  in  1890  it  was 
increased  61  1-2  per  cent.,  and  that  the  number  of  cities  having  a 
population  of  8,000  or  over,  during  the  decade  from  1890  to  1900 
has  increased  22  per  cent.,  while  during  the  decade  ending  in  1890, 
63  2-10  per  cent. ;  the  greatest  increase  of  the  urban  population 
took  place  in  the  decade  ending  1890.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
rural  population  has  slowly  but  steadily  increased  from  11  6-10 
per  cent,  in  1890  to  14  per  cent,  in  1900.  These  figures  show  that 
the  cityward  movement  was  checked  in  the  last  decade. 

Agricultural  industry  in  this  country  ceases  to  consist  of  mere 
exploiting  of  the  gifts  of  nature.  Man's  mind  is  called  upon  to 
assist  natural  forces  to  serve  his  needs  in  foodstuffs.  Hence, 
agricultural  education  becomes  a  necessity.  The  Federal  govern- 
ment, as  well  as  the  State  governments,  now  more  than  ever,  are 
furthering  American  farming  by  disseminating  among  farmers, 
scientific  and  practical  information,  through  the  publication  of 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  205 

bulletins  by  the  different  bureaus  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture in  Washington,  and  State  Experiment  Stations  and  also 
Farmers'  Institutes.  The  Federal  government  is  maintaining  a 
splendidly  equipped  department  of  agriculture  with  thousands 
of  workers  investigating  all  branches  of  farming,  and  every  State 
in  the  Union  also  has  well  equipped  agricultural  schools  and  ex- 
periment stations.  In  some  of  the  Northwestern  States  secondary 
schools  of  agriculture  are  maintained  either  independently  or  in 
connection  with  the  Agricultural  Colleges  for  farmers '  children ; 
such,  for  instance,  are  the  School  of  Agriculture  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Minnesota,  St.  Anthony  Park,  and  that  of  the  University 
of  Nebraska,  or  the  Agricultural  High  Schools  of  the  State  College 
of  Washington  and  the  Rhode  Island  College  of  Agriculture  and 
Mechanical  Arts,  at  Kingston,  R.  I.  In  some  of  the  Western 
States  there  are  County  Agricultural  High  Schools,  such  as  the 
Dunn  County  School  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Economy  of 
Menomonee.  Wis.,  and  the  Marathon  County  School  of  Agri- 
culture, Wausau,  Wis.  Alabama  has  nine  high  schools  with  agri- 
cultural departments,  and  Missouri  three  normal  schools  with 
agricultural  courses.  There  are  also  elementary  and  primary 
agricultural  schools,  principally  for  dependent  children.  The 
negro  is  provided  best  with  agricultural  educational  facilities. 
Sixteen  Southern  and  Southwestern  States  maintain  schools  for 
the  benefit  of  the  negro,  where  agriculture  is  an  important,  though 
not  the  only  taught  branch;  some  trades  as  well  as  normal 
courses  share  equally  with  agriculture  in  the  curriculum  of  these 
schools.  Lately  a  strong  movement  has  been  inaugurated  to  in- 
corporate agriculture  in  the  curriculum  of  the  public  schools  in 
the  rural  districts.  The  American  educators  are  attaching  great 
importance  to  this  recent  movement.  At  the  biennial  meeting  of 
the  National  Educational  Association,  held  last  July  in  Asbury 
Park,  N.  J.,  a  special  committee  reporting  regarding  agricultural 
education  in  rural  schools  had  the  following  to  say : 

' '  The  committee  thought  that  the  mastery  of  such  part  of  agri- 
cultural science  as  is  within  the  capabilities  of  elementary  and 
secondary  school  pupils  furnishes  a  mental  training  unsurpassed 
in  extent  and  quality  by  the  mastery  of  any  other  body  of  knowl- 
edge now  regarded  as  essential  to  our  common  school  courses,  and 


206  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

requiring  an  equal  amount  of  time,  and  that  for  utility  value  it 
is  unequaled  by  any  other  body  of  knowledge  at  present  acquired 
through  the  expenditure  of  the  same  amount  of  time  and  effort. ' ' 

2.  The  agricultural  situation  in  this  country  as  presented  to 
you  justifies  our  philanthropic  efforts  towards  opening  to  the 
Jews  new  fields  of  employment  and  new  means  of  earning  a 
healthful  living  through  the  pursuit  of  farming.  For  the  general 
Jewish  welfare  we  must  certainly  have  a  farming  population,  as 
we  will  stand  better  with  our  neighbors  when  we  are  able  to  point 
out  that  the  agricultural  industries  are  taken  up  by  us  as  a  life 
vocation.  From  an  economic  standpoint,  farming,  as  a  new 
Jewish  trade,  is  not  only  advisable,  but  is  an  absolute  necessity. 

In  all  large  cities,  Jewish  committees  are  maintaining  trade, 
industrial  and  technical  schools,  following  the  general  tendency 
in  this  country  to  replace  the  medieval  form  of  apprenticeship 
by  regular  long  and  short  courses  of  technical  and  trade  train- 
ing in  special  schools.  In  1900  there  existed  in  the  United  States 
over  110  educational  institutions  where  manufacturing  and  me- 
chanical arts  were  taught. 

In  1900  the  average  number  of  wage-earners  employed  in  the 
hand  trades,  such  as  building  trades,  blacksmithing  wheelwright- 
ing,  furniture  and  cabinet  making,  etc.,  was  801,284,  hardly  2  3-4 
per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  wage-earners.  The  metal  workers 
in  this  country,  including  iron  and  steel,  number  about  1,000,000. 
less  than  3  1-2  per  cent.  Workers  in  wood  and  those  in  the  tex- 
tile industries,  including  the  manufacturing  of  clothing,  do  not 
compose  more  than  5  and  10  per  cent,  of  the  total  laboring 
population,  and  yet  the  total  product  of  each  enumerated  group 
of  industries  exceeded  the  home  consumption.  These  industries 
are  well  provided  with  labor  and  observation  points  toward  a  state 
of  affairs  which  is  making  employment  in  these  branches  of 
industry  unsteady. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  agricultural  industry  gave  employment 
in  the  same  year  to  over  10,000,000  persons,  or  over  36  per  cent, 
of  the  total  number  of  wage  earners,  and  while  it  is  true  that  the 
country  has  produced  more  farm  products  than  it  needs,  Ameri- 
can farming,  to  a  certain  extent,  does  not  meet  such  fierce  com- 
petition in  the  world's  market  as  American  manufacturing  and 


NATIONAL  CONFERENCE  OF   JEWISH  CHARITIES.  207 

mechanical  trades.  Again,  the  farm  labor  market  is  not  satiated. 
By  giving  an  agricultural  training  to  our  youth,  we  will  direct 
them  from  occupations  that  are  already  overcrowded  into  new 
fields  of  activity  where  their  labor  is  more  sought  for. 

3.  Can  we  utilize  the  existing  agencies  for  agricultural  edu- 
cation to  train  Jewish  youth  for  farming  pursuits,  or  do  we  need 
to  maintain  special  Jewish  agricultural  schools  ?  These  questions 
are  of  vital  importance  since  the  Jewish  communities  are  over- 
whelmed with  problems  which  already  heavily  tax  their  financial 
resources. 

Jewish  organized  charity  should  not  only  avoid  duplicating  ex- 
isting agencies  for  dispensing  charity  in  order  to  prevent  waste  of 
means  and  energy,  but  should  especially  abstain  from  competing 
with  State  and  municipal  institutions.  To  my  mind  the  principal 
function  of  Jewish  organized  charity  is  to  step  in,  then  and 
there,  when  and  where,  the  State  or  municipality  fails  or  cannot 
act,  and  co-operate  with  existing  institutions.  It  would,  there- 
fore, be  not  only  unwise  but  wasteful  to  maintain  special  Jewish 
agricultural  schools  whenever  the  State  school  meets  the  Jewish 
need  for  agricultural  education. 

Unfortunately,  however,  none  of  the  present  schools  meet  fully 
the  Jewish  needs  for  the  obvious  reason  that  all  the  agricultural 
colleges  and  agricultural  high  schools  were  established  to  further 
American  agriculture,  while  we  have  yet  to  create  Jewish  farm- 
ing. It  is  true  that  in  view  of  the  several  thousands  of  Jewish 
families  now  engaged  in  farming  in  this  country,  our  immediate 
task  is  no  longer  to  demonstrate  whether  or  not  the  Jew  can  be  a 
farmer,  but  as  yet,  on  account  of  small  numbers,  we  can  hardly 
consider  Jewish  farming  a  well  established  economic  factor  in  the 
life  of  the  American  Jew  and  past  its  experimental  stage.  To  a 
still  greater  degree  is  this  the  case  with  Jewish  agricultural  edu- 
cation, since  it  is  entirely  a  new  activity,  about  ten  years  old,  and 
requires  more  fostering.  This  cannot  be  accomplished  by  the  ex- 
isting general  agricultural  school. 

The  contingent  from  which  we  are  to  draw  our  agricultural 
school  pupils  is  different  from  the  contingent  at  the  command  of 
the  American  schools.  The  latter  is  composed  of  children  of 
American  farmers  who  learn  the  practical  operations  of  farming 


208  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

upon  their  fathers'  farms  during  their  childhood,  and  go  to  the 
colleges  and  schools  to  study  improved  methods  of  farming. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  farm  schools  are  not  in  operation 
during  the  summer  months,  and  are  principally  theoretical 
schools,  though  the  methods  of  imparting  agricultural  knowledge 
in  some  of  them  may  be  eminently  practical.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, should  the  children  of  the  Americanized  Jew  be  willing  to 
study  agriculture,  their  lack  of  knowledge  of  elementary  farming 
operations  and  farm  life  would  prevent  them  from  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  existing  agricultural  colleges  and  high  schools. 
This  is  still  more  so  with  the  main  contingent  from  which  we 
have  to  recruit  our  pupils,  the  immigrant  Jew.  To  the  absence 
of  practical  farming  training  which  the  Americanized  Jew  lacks, 
may  be  added  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  English  language  on 
the  part  of  the  immigrants,  and  of  the  American  ways  of  think- 
ing and  acting. 

4.  In  order  then,  to  enable  the  Americanized  and  the  immi- 
grant Jewish  lads  to  take  advantage  of  the  educational  facilities 
offered  by  the  State  colleges  and  secondary  agricultural  schools, 
preparatory  Jewish  agricultural  schools  should  be  established 
where  they  can  learn  that  which  the  farmers '  boys  learn  at  home, 
namely,  the  farm  operations  and  farm  life. 

The  agricultural  education,  however,  which  we  are  to  give, 
must  be  such  as  will  enable  us  not  so  much  to  prepare  the  pupils 
to  enter  higher  agricultural  schools,  but  which  will  eminently 
fit  them  to  become  practical  farmers,  and  also  to  prepare  them 
sufficiently  to  be  able  to  take  up  advanced  studies  for  practical 
purposes,  should  they  desire  to  do  so. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  we  invoke  the  assistance  of  the 
American  farmers  by  apprenticing  to  them  those  of  our  young 
men  who  may  be  desirous  of  learning  farming,  and  thus  make  a 
special  Jewish  agricultural  school  unnecessary.  The  American 
farmers,  however,  are  business  men  and  not  philanthropists.  They 
would  employ  the  young  men  apprenticed  to  them  at  such  tasks 
whereat  they  could  get  out  of  them  the  best  services  and  necessa- 
rily at  the  lowest  and  least  remunerative  of  all  farm  work.  Such 
unattractive  work  and  scant  wages  would  certainly  not  serve  as  an 
incentive  to  learn  farming. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  209 

To  make  the  Jewish  boy  stay  on  the  farm  by  keeping  him  igno- 
rant of  the  scientific  methods  taught  in  schools  is  impracticable 
in  our  day  and  in  our  land.  Ignorance  and  stagnation  will  not 
solve  problems  in  our  country. 

The  Jewish  Agricultural  School  must  train  farm  helpers,  who 
may,  after  several  years  of  work  for  others,  become  independent 
farmers.  The  task  of  such  a  school,  therefore,  is  to  train  the 
young  men  for  the  rank  and  file,  and  not  for  leadership.  No 
Jewish  community  can  afford  to  equip  and  maintain  a  school 
which  will  equal  even  the  poorest  equipped  State  institution,  and 
in  such  we  cannot  train  leaders.  With  less  sacrifice,  if  leaders  are 
needed,  individual  communities  can  educate  them  in  the  higher 
agricultural  educational  institutions,  like  Cornell  University  in 
the  East  and  the  Michigan  Agricultural  College  in  the  "West. 

The  curriculum  of  a  Jewish  agricultural  school,  accordingly, 
must  be  arranged  so  as  to  train  the  largest  possible  number,  and 
with  the  view  of  making  the  pupils  practical  farmers;  the  age 
must  be  sufficiently  high  so  as  not  to  extend  the  course  too  long, 
since  we  must  not  forget  that  no  matter  how  young  the  boys  may 
be,  they  are  of  an  earning  age,  and  their  earnings  are  needed 
for  their  families. 

In  connection  with  this,  it  might  be  suggested,  nay,  strongly  be 
recommended,  that  the  orphan  asylums  should  introduce  agri- 
culture for  their  wards,  not  with  any  practical  purpose  in  view, 
but  as  a  form  of  manual  training,  the  object  of  which  should  be 
to  arouse  in  the  children  an  interest  in  nature,  and  to  develop 
through  nature  studies  their  higher  intellect ;  to  teach  them  some 
facts,  the  knowledge  of  which  may  make  them  useful  on  the  farm ; 
to  make  them  familiar  with  domestic  animals  by  bringing  them 
in  contact  with  farm  animals  in  the  stables;  to  teach  them  the 
principal  parts  of  plants  and  their  uses  to  men.  By  introducing 
school  gardens  we  may  arouse  interest  in  farming  in  some  of  the 
wards  and  prepare  them  for  the  career  of  the  farmer. 

It  might  also  be  practical  to  establish  agricultural  homes  for 
Jewish  delinquent  and  dependent  children.  The  hundreds  of 
children  that  are  committed  to  non-Jewish  reform  homes  would 
justify  our  efforts  in  this  direction.  During  the  past  year  about 
1,400  Jewish  children  were  committed  to  institutions  in  New 


210  PROCEEDINGS  OP  THE  FOURTH 

York  city  only.  Out  of  that  number  655  were  sent  to  Jewish  in- 
stitutions. The  rest  were  taken  to  non-Jewish  places  under  the 
protest  of  the  religious  parents.  The  ever  increasing  number  of 
delinquents  in  our  cities  must  not  be  ignored. 

The  Jewish  Agricultural  Schools,  as  any  other  educational  in- 
stitution, should  not  be  looked  upon  as  revenue  bringing  enter- 
prises. They,  just  as  the  trade  schools,  cannot  be  considered  a 
business  proposition  for  profit.  Neither  should  the  school  farm 
be  attempted  to  be  run  as  a  model  farm.  The  very  unskilled 
labor  of  the  pupils  cannot  be  expected  to  work  wonders.  A 
model  farm,  however,  conducted  strictly  on  a  business  basis, 
should  be  maintained  near  the  school  in  order  to  demonstrate  to 
the  pupils  what  agricultural  skill  can  produce.  Those  interested 
in  Jewish  agricultural  education  should  not  become  discouraged 
by  the  first  results.  For  a  period  of  years  the  number  of  gradu- 
ates and  the  number  of  former  pupils  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of 
farming  may  be  small,  but  the  value  of  the  school  should,  never- 
theless, not  be  underestimated.  Because  of  the  fact  that  the  num- 
ber of  the  students  in  the  agricultural  departments  of  the  65 
colleges  endowed  under  the  Acts  of  Congress  of  the  2d  of  July, 
1862,  and  the  30th  of  August,  1890,  were  only  8,011,  in  1901,  and 
because  the  number  of  graduates  was  still  smaller  and  not  all 
of  them  followed  farming  after  graduation,  no  one  who  is  even 
superficially  familiar  with  farming  in  this  country  will  deny  the 
great  services  these  colleges  are  rendering  to  American  farming. 

We  must  not  forget  that  Jewish  agricultural  students,  while 
they  may  be  benefited  by  the  training  they  are  to  get  in  agri- 
cultural schools,  in  order  to  remain  at  farming,  must  revo- 
lutionize all  of  their  habits  of  urban  life  and  break  all  city  con- 
nections, and  get  accustomed  to  a  life  which  as  yet  remains 
isolated,  the  trolley,  telephone  and  traveling  libraries  notwith- 
standing. Neither  must  we  overlook  the  fact  that  although  there 
are  vague  yearnings  for  country  life  and  farm  life  among  our 
people  in  large  cities,  the  sentiment  is  not  crystallized  and  the 
prejudice  of  the  old  country  Jew  against  farming,  as  the  peas- 
ant's occupation,  is  still  a  factor  to  be  contended  with.  Never- 
theless, signs  for  a  better  understanding  and  a  more  intelligent 
regard  for  farm  life  among  our  people  are  not  lacking.  During 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  211 

the  last  month,  the  month  of  admission  to  the  Baron  de  Hirsch 
Agricultural  School,  at  Woodbine,  some  applicants  between  the 
ages  of  18  and  22  were  accompanied  by  their  fathers,  who  pleaded 
to  have  their  sons  admitted  to  the  school,  since  they  themselves 
expected  to  settle  on  farms  and  desired  to  have  some  one  in  the 
family  to  run  them. 

Before  closing  my  address  I  want  to  say  that  some  of  the  sug- 
gestions presented  to  you  have  been  applied  to  the  Woodbine 
Agricultural  School,  and  some  are  being  experimented  with. 

In  summing  up  this  paper.  I  would  say,  first,  an  occupation 
which  supports  in  comfort  and  keeps  the  wolf  from  the  door  of 
over  one-third  of  American  people,  and  partly  supplies  England 
and  some  of  the  continental  countries  with  foodstuffs,  can  safely 
be  recommended  to  our  brethren  looking  for  a  new  source  of 
livelihood.  Moreover,  Jewish  farming  is  an  important  political 
factor  in  the  life  of  the  American  Jew  and  an  economic  necessity. 
And,  secondly,  Jewish  agricultural  schools  must  be  organized  and 
conducted  so  as  not  to  duplicate  the  work  of  the  State  Agricultu- 
ral Colleges  and  High  Schools,  and  fit  their  pupils  for  practical 
farming. 

DISCUSSION. 

RABBI  A.  R.  LEVY:  I  regret  to  say  that  the  effort  in  mak- 
ing Jewish  farmers  has  not  been  tested  at  all  in  America. 
I  regret  to  say  very  much  it  has  been  attempted  in 
a  manner  that  is  bewildering,  and  one  of  the  things 
that  good  men  have  accomplished  is  the  bungling  of  un- 
systematized  work.  Read  in  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia  and  you 
will  find  one  failure  after  the  other.  Not  a  single  attempt  to 
make  a  Jewish  farmer  has  lasted  more  than  four  years,  when  it 
requires  eight  to  ten  to  make  a  farmer — not  a  single  attempt 
outside  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund.  Of  the  individual  at- 
tempts none  has  lasted  more  than  three  years.  I  mean  to  say 
the  men  are  not  given  a  chance.  We  have  among  our  farmers 
a  man  who  owed  us  $480  on  the  books;  he  was  a  failure.  I 
urged  the  members  (200  or  more)  to  give  him  a  chance,  and  a 
committee  came  to  me,  saying,  "No."  "I  am  a  very  poor 
man."  I  said,  "and  if  you  don't  I  will  do  it  myself."  And  1 


212  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE   FOURTH 

threatened  the  committee  of  wealthy  men,  and  they  did  it.  The 
man  owed  us  after  six  years  a  thousand  and  forty  dollars,  of 
which  $640  were  received  from  the  Jewish  Agricultural  Aid  So- 
ciety of  New  York.  Then  when  the  man  began  paying,  the  fol- 
lowing year,  he  paid  $240,  and  the  third  year  after  he  was  able 
to  pay,  he  paid  everything  he  owed  and  four  per  cent,  on  the 
money  invested,  but  it  took  eight  years.  You  can't  do  it  in 
four ;  sometimes  it  takes  longer.  We  have  another  .instance  also 
of  money  advanced  partly  by  the  Jewish  Agricultural  Aid  So- 
ciety, and  it  took  twelve  years  to  enable  the  man  to  pay.  The 
man  has  been  living  with  a  large  family  for  twelve  years  on  a 
farm  and  he  has  struggled  along,  and  there  is  not  a  cent  lost  of 
the  investment ;  because  the  property  in  itself,  which  was  bought 
at  $6  an  acre,  is  worth  to-day  $25  or  $30  an  acre.  Nothing  has 
been  lost  and  everything  gained. 

A  gentleman  in  charge  of  agriculture  told  me:  ''You  will 
get  nothing  from  work  on  the  farm, ' '  he  says,  ' '  because  the  Jew 
wants  quick  returns."  I  said,  "You  are  the  one  that  wants 
quick  returns."  It  is  not  true  that  the  Jew  must  have  money 
in  his  fingers  all  the  time.  It  is  not  so.  Experience  has  taught 
me  that  the  Jew  is  patient,  but  he  must  have  large  assistance.  It 
requires  a  great  deal  of  money  not  to  be  given  but  to  be  in- 
vested, and  whenever  and  wherever  the  Jews  will  be  able  to  as- 
sist a  movement  like  that  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  but  it 
will  be  a  success.  We  have  the  best  men  in  this  country  with 
us.  There  is  no  use  arguing;  everybody  admits  agriculture  is 
the  means  which  we  ought  to  apply  to  elevate  our  Jews.  No- 
body disputes  that,  but  what  we  lack  is  funds — the  willingness 
of  the  people  to  take  their  surplus  money  and  invest  it  where  it 
is  necessary.  Believe  me,  Jews  or  non-Jews  have  invested  in 
papers  that  are  not  a  tenth  as  good  as  the  securities  which  we 
have — they  never  get  back  ten  or  twenty  per  cent,  from  the  ex- 
change. Let  a  Jew  invest  $10  in  a  farm  and  not  get  it  back  in 
three  or  four  years,  then  you  will  hear  you  cannot  succeed.  I 
tell  you  here  is  where  we  have  to  change.  I  tell  you  that  holds 
good  to-day.  If  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund  will  buy  a  hundred 
thousand  acres  of  land  you  will  see  if  the  money  is  not  a  thou- 
sand times  better  invested  than  in  bonds. 

The  Jewish  Agriculturists  Aid  Society  came  into  existence  on 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  213 

the  28th  of  October,  1888.  We  have  demonstrated  that  its  work 
can  be  done,  and  to-day  we  are  in  touch  with  183  Jewish  families 
—farmers— where  the  amount  outstanding  has  not  yet  reached 
$50,000,  if  we  deduct  that  which  the  Jewish  Agricultural  Aid 
Society  advanced.  Now,  supposing  it  is  true  that  only  forty 
per  cent,  is  good;  supposing  you  wipe  out  the  whole  thing,  we 
have  made  so  many  people  self-sustaining,  and  if  you  count  up 
what  they  own  to-day,  it  amounts  to  a  quarter  of  a  million 
dollars  at  the  very  least. 

MR.  A.  W.  RICH,  Milwaukee:  Rabbi  Levy  betrayed  the  se- 
cret of  success  of  the  Chicago  Agricultural  Society,  and  that  is 
exactly  what  every  other  community  requires.  There  is  a  man 
by  the  name  of  Levy  there  who  is  giving  the  best  part  of  his  life 
for  this  work.  I  consider  that  more  requisite  than  money. 

I  would  say  with  reference  to  Dr.  Leucht's  paper,  I  haven't 
any  doubt  that  the  South  can  give  the  country  an  opportunity 
in  creating  farmers  and  farms.  The  best  thing  is  to  look  around 
and  find  the  man  who  will  give  his  time,  effort  and  sacrifice  in 
order  to  carry  out  the  plan — who  will  pave  the  way  and  find 
the  money.  You  can  talk  of  your  societies  giving  you  millions. 
If  you  haven't  the  men  to  lead  in  the  communities  you  are  not 
going  to  make  successful  farmers;  it  is  the  personal  work;  it  is 
the  same  as  Rabbi  Levy  has  been  doing  that  is  needed.  You 
ought  to  find  a  man  in  every  community  who  is  willing  to  make 
a  sacrifice,  and  if  you  do  that  you  can  make  successful  farmers. 
You  cannot  do  it  with  money  alone. 

MERCANTILE  CLUB,  8  P.  M.,  MAY  8,  1906. 
THE  PRESIDENT  :  The  general  subject  for  the  discussion  of  this 
evening  is  "Tuberculosis." 

THE  TREATMENT   OF  CONSUMPTIVES  IN  THEIR 

HOMES. 

F.  L.  WACHENHEIM,  M.D.,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Tuberculosis  of  the  United  Hebrew   Charities,  New 
York  City. 

Four  years  ago  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York  made 
an  investigation,  the  first  in  this  country,  to  determine  the  feasi- 


214  .  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

bility  of  treating  consumptives  in  their  homes  with  benefit  to 
themselves  and  the  community.  In  the  following  year  the  Com- 
mittee on  Tuberculosis  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  in- 
vestigated along  the  same  line,  obtaining  results  but  slightly 
different.  Neither  society  adopted  this  special  field  of  philan- 
thropy as  a  permanent  and  distinct  department,  although  the 
latter  organization  has,  very  recently,  taken  up  the  subject  anew. 

The  cases  of  tuberculosis  that  come  to  us  for  home  treatment 
may  be  grouped  as  follows :  First,  we  have  the  advanced  cases, 
beyond  the  early,  miscalled  incipient  stage,  and  no  longer  promis- 
ing subjects  for  sanatorium  treatment.  Secondly,  there  are  the 
quiescent  cases,  where  a  certain  proportion  of  wage-earning 
power  remains,  so  that  home  treatment  affords  certain  economic 
advantages.  The  cases  that  are  likely  to  do  well  under  institu- 
tional treatment  do  not  concern  us  here,  for  the  facilities  for  tak- 
ing care  of  them  promise  to  be  entirely  adequate  within  a  year 
or  two,  being  nearly  so  to-day ;  the  provision  for  the  family,  while 
the  wage-earner  is  in  a  sanatorium,  is  altogether  a  question  of 
ordinary  pecuniary  relief. 

In  the  City  of  New  York  a  plan  has  been  evolved,  by  which 
the  Department  of  Health  and  the  various  relief  societies  co- 
operate in  attending  to  the  medical  and  economic  needs,  respec- 
tively, of  poor  families,  one  or  more  of  whose  members  are 
afflicted  with  tuberculosis.  The  Health  Department  even  goes 
so  far  as  to  furnish  additional  food,  in  the  form  of  milk  and 
eggs,  to  its  patients,  where  the  family  resources  are  inadequate; 
medical  relief  proper  is  afforded  through  a  visiting  and  nursing 
staff  and  special  dispensaries,  whose  management  is  unquestion- 
ably of  a  high  order.  We  might  assume,  from  the  above,  that  the 
management  of  tuberculosis  is  pretty  well  in  hand,  and  that  the 
home  treatment  just  outlined,  supplemented  with  sanatoria  for 
early  cases,  hospitals  for  the  incurables,  and  a  complete  system  of 
general  relief,  covers  the  ground  quite  fully.  It  will  be  my  main 
endeavor  to  prove  that  such  is  not  the  case,  admitting,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  our  present  methods  are  far  from  useless,  and 
do  meet  the  situation  to  a  certain  extent. 

One  set  of  cases,  the  second  group,  where  there  is  still  some 
wage-earning  power,  is  eminently  adapted  to  home  treatment; 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  215 

I  refer  especially  to  the  numerous  class  who  are  discharged  from 
sanatoria  as  "improved,"  "arrested"  and  "quiescent."  Many 
of  these  patients  have  enjoyed  institutional  care  for  as  much  as 
a  year,  without  giving  hopes  of  a  complete  cure,  but  also  without 
going  utterly  to  pieces.  If  we  can  obtain  light  outdoor  work  for 
these  individuals,  they  can  be  handled  very  well  through  the 
dispensary,  if  that  institution  is  open  early  in  the  morning  and 
late  in  the  evening.  The  customary  afternoon  classes  are  quite 
unsuited  to  such  as  have  to  earn  a  living,  the  more  so  as,  with 
the  present  crowding  of  our  dispensaries,  a  visit  means  the  loss 
of  almost  an  entire  afternoon.  It  may  be  said  that  the  dispen- 
saries under  the  supervision  of  the  New  York  Health  Depart- 
ment, as  well  as  a  few  others,  are  open  at  suitable  hours,  and  too 
much  praise  cannot  be  bestowed  upon  those  who  attend  at  such 
uncomfortable  hours  as  seven  A.  M.  in  winter,  to  provide  for  the 
medical  relief  of  this  group  of  consumptives.  Where  the  victim 
is  not  a  wage-earner,  the  matter  is  of  course  quite  simple,  so  far 
as  medical  relief  is  concerned. 

Visits  by  trained  nurses  are  an  important  element  in  the  proper 
management  of  these  cases,  and  constitute  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able features  of  the  present  system.  Only  thus  can  general 
hygiene,  and  more  particularly  the  special  hygiene  required  in 
the  presence  of  tuberculosis  be  maintained;  I  have  convinced 
myself  that  ordinary  friendly  visiting  does  not  quite  meet  this 
phase  of  the  subject,  for  the  relief  agent  is  usually  either  afraid 
of  infection,  or  not  fully  conversant  with  the  sanitary  precautions 
long  since  proved  necessary. 

The  full  importance  of  proper  disposition  of  the  sputum  has 
only  become  apparent  since  attention  was  called  by  Behring  to 
the  probability  that  the  majority  of  infections  with  tuberculosis 
take  place  during  early  childhood,  though  the  disease  may  remain 
latent  for  years  or  decades,  or  manifest  itself  solely  through  the 
symptom  group  called  scrofulosis.  As  young  children  pass  most 
of  their  time  creeping  or  running  about  on  the  floor  we  see  that 
any  uncleanliness,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  disposition  of  sputum, 
is  quite  certain  to  spread  the  infection  to  the  next  generation, 
which  does  not  acquire  tuberculosis  by  constitutional  heredity. 
as  so  often  assumed,  but  by  infection  in  the  ordinary  sense. 


216  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

An  important,  perhaps  the  most  important,  element  in  the  care 
of  the  consumptive  at  home  is  the  supply  of  plentiful  and  nutri- 
tious food.  The  diminished  wages  of  the  semi-invalid  are  often 
inadequate  and  one  of  the  dietetic  mainstays,  fresh  eggs,  is  an 
expensive  item  in  winter.  When  a  whole  family  is  dependent  on 
an  income  of  six  to  eight  dollars  a  week,  the  consumptive  is  quite 
certain  to  be  insufficiently  nourished.  The  average  family,  of 
two  adults  and  four  children,  requires  a  minimum  outlay  of 
ninety  cents  per  day  for  food  at  the  prevailing  high  cost  of 
living;  statistical  research  shows  that  many  families  endeavor 
to  subsist  on  half  that  sum,  with  inevitable  and  evident  injury  to 
their  members.  The  addition  of  varying  amounts,  either  in 
money  or  in  kind  (milk,  eggs,  etc.)  therefore  forms  an  integral 
feature  of  this  plan  of  treatment,  and  the  New  York  Health 
Department,  in  co-operation  with  the  various  societies,  but  also 
on  its  own  account,  is  making  an  intelligent  effort  to  meet  this 
phase  of  the  situation.  One  point  must  not,  however,  be  lost 
sight  of,  namely,  that  it  is  quite  essential  to  see  that  the  whole 
family  is  well  fed,  otherwise  some  of  the  invalid's  special  supply 
is  apt  to  be  diverted  to  the  half-starved  children. 

Assuming  that  the  wages  of  the  head  of  the  family  amount 
even  to  eight  dollars  per  week,  the  relief  required  by  the  average 
family,  as  mentioned,  requires  an  outlay  of  five  to  ten  dollars 
per  month  as  a  steady  pension.  To  permit  the  eking  out  of  the 
rent  by  taking  a  lodger  is  inadmissible  in  these  families,  both  be- 
cause of  the  risk  of  infection  and  the  inevitable  overcrowding, 
for  the  consumptive  requires  a  light  and  well-ventilated  room 
for  his  or  her  exclusive  occupancy. 

I  have  not  touched  upon  the  point  that  the  said  family  will 
require  at  least  three  rooms,  but  should  have  four,  signifying  a 
relatively  high  rent ;  that  the  cheaper  and  very  unsanitary  tene- 
ments are  utterly  unsuited  to  such  cases,  but  that  the  removal 
to  more  wholesome  quarters  uptown  calls  for  various  extra  ex- 
penditures in  the  way  of  carfare  and  the  higher  prices  of  things 
in  general. 

The  main  question  in  the  group  mentioned  has  been  that 
of  cost;  the  consumptive  in  the  active  stage,  too  far  advanced 
for  cure  in  a  sanatorium,  presents  a  far  more  complicated  prob- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  217 

lem,  for  which  home  treatment  affords  no  solution;  it  has  been 
given  a  fair  trial,  extending  over  years,  and  found  wanting,  for 
the  following  reasons. 

When  the  sole  wage-earner  is  the  victim,  the  family  rapidly 
falls  into  utter  destitution ;  the  constant  attendance  on  an  invalid 
who  does  not  even  permit  his  family  to  sleep,  invariably  results 
in  the  undermining  of  the  health  of  his  wife,  who  is  apt  to  develop 
symptoms  of  tuberculosis  within  a  moderate  number  of  months; 
the  infection  of  the  children  then  becomes  almost  a  certainty. 
As  the  general  breakdown  of  the  family  progresses,  the  sanitary 
requirements,  so  necessary  in  these  homes,  become  more  and 
more  neglected;  even  if  the  grosser  masses  of  sputum  are  still 
disposed  of  according  to  rule,  the  family  washing,  the  scrubbing 
of  the  floors,  and  the  like,  fall  steadily  farther  into  arrears,  and 
the  neighbors,  even  if  able  to  assist,  are  apt  to  be  in  some  dread 
of  doing  so,  and  quite  rightly.  It  is  through  these  cases  that 
houses,  and  even  entire  blocks,  become  so  badly  infected  with 
tuberculosis  that  nothing  short  of  demolition  is  likely  to  stay 
the  epidemic. 

When  the  wife  is  the  victim,  matters  are  at  first  not  quite  so 
bad.  but  the  infection  of  the  husband  is  almost  certain  to  ensue 
in  time,  and  the  above  picture  of  squalid  misery  develops  with 
equal  rapidity  and  certainty.  It  might  be  supposed  that  pecuniary 
relief  and  nursing  would  meet  the  situation  in  these  cases;  the 
former,  however,  is  very  often  likely  to  exceed  thirty  dollars 
per  month,  and  the  latter  cannot  possibly  be  made  effective,  for 
sufficient  time  is  not  at  the  nurse's  disposal,  to  look  after  an 
entire  family.  When  the  husband  is  disabled,  it  is  practically 
necessary  to  supply  every  penny  of  the  family's  support;  eco- 
nomically, at  any  rate,  the  care  of  this  group  of  consumptives  at 
home  is  a  ghastly  and  expensive  failure. 

It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  pioneer  in  the  campaign 
against  tuberculosis,  Prof.  Robert  Koch,  expresses  himself  as 
follows :  "  It  is  all  very  well  to  send  curable  cases  to  sanatoria, 
and  record  results  that  are  often  brilliant ;  in  addition,  however, 
the  advanced  cases  should  be  given  the  benefit  of  hospital  treat- 
ment. Few  of  them  may  be  really  cured,  but  we  shall  at  any 
rate  cut  off  the  danger  of  infecting  others;  the  consumptive 


218  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  FOURTH 

should  not,  under  any  circumstances,  be  permitted  to  waste  away 
and  die  in  his  home. ' ' 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  many  of  those  who  advocate  home  treat- 
ment for  advanced  tuberculosis,  and  for  that  matter  other  forms 
of  chronic  wasting  disease,  are  unfamiliar  with  conditions  in  the 
lower  class  of  tenements  for  the  poor,  and  the  hopeless  inade- 
quacy of  the  resources  at  the  command  of  these  families.  In 
acute  disease  the  hospital  is  likely  to  be  sought  at  once,  but  to 
bring  a  wage-earner  through  an  attack  of  pneumonia  or  even 
typhoid  fever  is  mere  child's  play,  compared  with  the  unending 
labor,  expense  and  danger  to  all  about,  involved  in  the  care  of  a 
far-advanced  case  of  pulmonary  tuberculosis.  It  is,  of  course, 
the  lack  of  facilities  for  handling  the  latter  group  of  patients 
that  is  largely  responsible  for  the  mentioned  state  of  things,  but 
a  final  analysis  shows  that  the  trouble  lies  with  the  defective 
education  of  the  public  at  large ;  our  philanthropists  and  public 
men  are  evidently  but  feebly  aware  of  the  gravity  of  the  situ- 
ation. 

It  is  plain  that  the  treatment  of  advanced  tuberculosis  at 
home  involves  two  questions,  the  one  being  medical  and  hygienic, 
the  other  economic.  In  managing  tuberculosis  in  its  earliest 
stages  we  solve  the  former  by  means  of  sanatorium  treatment, 
and  make  the  latter  less  urgent  by  the  removal  of  the  patient; 
but  when  we  are  confronted  by  a  case  of  the  kind  now  under 
consideration,  we  have  but  inadequate  means  of  handling  it  in 
an  effective  way. 

Hospitals  or  sanatoria  for  advanced  cases,  analogous  to  those 
provided  for  the  early  or  incipient  ones,  would  appear  to  offer 
the  best  solution  for  this  grave  problem.  In  New  York  City  the 
municipality  has  done  something  in  this  direction  and  promises 
to  accomplish  much  more ;  one  or  two  religious  organizations  have 
also  provided  facilities,  notably  the  Roman  Catholics,  in  reserving 
350  beds  in  St.  Joseph's  Hospital  in  the  Bronx.  For  advanced 
cases  among  Hebrews  there  are  only  about  thirty  beds  provided 
in  the  Montefiore  Home  for  Chronic  Invalids.  The  inadequacy 
of  this  provision  is  evident ;  the  Jewish  consumptive,  for  various 
sound  and  sufficient  reasons,  is  unwilling  to  submit  to  the  regu- 
lations and  dietary  of  municipal  or  gentile  hospitals;  Jewish 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  219 

philanthropy  in  New  York  is,  therefore,  confronted  with  a  situ- 
ation that  calls  for  the  founding  of  an  institution  providing  at 
least  150  beds,  if  the  Jewish  consumptive  poor,  whose  prospects 
for  cure  or  permanent  improvement  are  inferior  or  bad,  are  to 
be  treated  as  well  as  their  gentile  fellow-sufferers. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  economic  stress  of  the  afflicted  family 
is  relieved  even  more  by  the  removal  of  an  advanced  case  of 
tuberculosis  than  of  one  in  the  earlier  stages.  There  is  another 
side  to  the  situation,  often  disregarded,  namely,  that  some  rather 
well  advanced  cases,  with  cavity  formation,  become  quiescent 
under  sanatorium  treatment.  Every  physician  encounters  an 
occasional  patient  who  comes  to  him  with  some  indifferent  ail- 
ment, and  is  otherwise  apparently  hale  and  hearty,  but  in  whom 
physical  examination  reveals  extensive  destruction  of  lung  tissue 
by  an  old  process,  which  has  become  quiescent  or  passed  into 
cicatrization.  Such  cases  would  undoubtedly  become  quite 
numerous  under  a  systematic  plan  of  treatment,  as  just  outlined. 
Too  exclusive  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  treatment  of  so-called 
incipient  consumptives;  advanced  consumptives  should  receive 
similar  treatment,  not  in  a  city  hospital,  but  in  a  suburban  or 
out-of-town  sanatorium. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  brilliant  results  cannot  be  expected 
from  an  institution  of  this  kind ;  relatively  few  beneficiaries  will 
be  cured,  many  will  go  from  bad  to  worse,  and  most  will  remain 
a  burden  to  the  institution  for  many  months  or  even  years.  On 
the  other  hand,  each  occupied  bed  will  signify  one  less  focus  of 
infection  in  the  tenements,  one  less  family  handicapped  by  an 
ever-growing  burden,  and  one  case  less  on  the  books  of  the  already 
overcharged  pension  list  of  a  relief  society.  Beyond  all  doubt, 
the  removal  of  so  helpless  and  dangerous  an  invalid  as  a  consump- 
tive in  the  advanced  stage,  would  save  many  a  family  from 
economic  ruin,  besides  checking  the  spread  of  the  most  devastat- 
ing chronic  disease  known  to  medical  science. 


220  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

THE  MISSION  OF  LOCAL  SANATORIA  IN  THE   CRU- 
SADE AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS 

DR.  THEODORE  B.  SACHS,  Chicago,  111. 

The  progress  of  a  country  may  be  measured  on  the  basis  of  edu- 
cation, kind  of  government,  state  of  science,  accumulation  and 
distribution  of  wealth,  etc.  .  .  .  but,  after  all,  real  civilization 
means  establishment  of  conditions,  under  which  every  individual 
unit  of  a  nation  has  a  chance  to  attain  proper  physical,  mental 
and  moral  development. 

The  health  of  a  nation  is  the  index  of  the  country's  advance. 

If  a  disease,  that  is  preventable,  claims  every  year  100,000 
victims  in  the  United  States,  we  will  have  to  confess  that  our 
progress  is  at  a  standstill,  until  this  frightful  mortality  is  grad- 
ually wiped  out. 

There  are  signs  of  awakening  all  over  the  country,  and  it  will 
not  be  surprising,  that  while  not  the  first  to  start  the  crusade 
against  tuberculosis,  the  United  States  may  be  the  first  to  solve 
this  great  problem  in  the  most  effectual  way. 

Tuberculosis,  the  disease  of  poverty,  overcrowding,  unsanitary 
workshop,  insufficient  wages,  long  hours  of  work,  etc.,  should  not 
exist  in  a  country  so  vast  in  extent  and  so  rich  in  resources. 

The  every-day  work  of  organizations  represented  at  this  Con- 
ference may  consist  of  extending  assistance  to  classes  tem- 
porarily dependent  or  permanently  disabled ;  but  the  broader  aim 
is,  of  course,  a  higher  standard  of  Jewish  citizenship  in  the  Uni- 
ted States. 

In  raising  the  banner  for  a  sturdier  manhood  and  woman- 
hood, we  are  face  to  face  with  a  number  of  diseases,  which  every- 
where, here  and  all  over  the  world,  impede  the  progress  of 
humanity. 

Among  these,  as  a  colossus,  towering  above  all  other  harvesters 
of  human  life,  stands  the  grim  reaper  of  death,  the  most  wide- 
spread disease  of  all,  the  "White  Plague." 

We  know  that  outdoor  life  and  pure  air,  combined  with  regular 
habits  and  nutritious  diet,  are  the  only  preventives  of  tuber- 
culosis known.  The  same  kind  of  life  offers  the  only  hope  of 
cure  or  improvement  to  an  individual  already  infected  with 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  221 

/ 

tubercular  germs.  This  principle  of  fresh  air,  day  and  night, 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  sanatoria  or  open  air  camps  for  con- 
sumptives. 

That  tuberculosis  is  a  curable  affection,  was  known  25  centuries 
ago.  Hippocrates,  the  medical  genius  of  the  ancient  Greek  civil- 
ization, advocated  strongly  the  idea  of  curability  of  this  disease, 
if  treated  at  an  early  stage. 

Centuries  later,  about  the  time  of  Christ,  the  same  view  was 
expounded  by  Cornelius  Celsus,  the  most  celebrated  Roman 
physician  and,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century,  Claudius 
Galen,  the  learned  student  of  Hippocratic  teachings,  was  in 
accord  with  the  same  idea. 

Most  of  the  ancient  authors  considered  a  suitable  climate  and 
a  proper  mode  of  life  important  elements  in  the  treatment  of  this 
disease. 

Through  centuries  of  observation  came  accumulation  of  evi- 
dence pointing  to  the  infectious  nature  and  communicability  of 
tuberculosis. 

The  19th  century,  noted  for  the  greatest  advance  in  all  chan- 
nels of  human  thought,  furnished  Villemin,  whose  famous  com- 
munication to  the  Academy  of  Medicine  in  Paris,  on  Dec.  5th, 
1865,  fully  demonstrated  that  tuberculosis  is  transmissible. 

Since  then  a  most  exhaustive  study  of  the  disease  was  carried 
on  by  the  best  minds  in  the  medical  profession,  leading  gradually 
to  the  famous  discovery  in  1882  of  the  tubercle  bacillus,  as  the 
cause  of  the  disease,  by  Dr.  Robert  Koch. 

The  first  glimpse  of  the  modern  sanatorium  treatment  of  tuber- 
culosis can  be  seen  in  the  attempt  made  in  1839  by  Dr.  George 
Bodington,  an  English  country  practitioner. 

Fully  convinced  that  fresh  air  day  and  night  and  a  nutritious 
diet  are  the  most  important  factors  in  the  treatment  of  a  con- 
sumptive, Dr.  Bodington  fitted  up  a  special  house  for  the  ad- 
mission of  this  class  of  patients.  In  his  time,  as  well  as,  to  some 
extent,  at  present,  the  tuberculous  patient  considered  any  draught 
of  fresh  air  antagonistic  to  his  chances  of  recovery.  As  these 
ideas  were  supported  by  the  medical  profession  at  large,  the 
institution  started  by  Br.  Bodington  became  the  subject  of  rid- 


222  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

icule,  was  eventually  closed  and  later  transformed  into  an  insane 
asylum. 

Twenty  years  passed  and  the  first  sanatorium  in  the  world  was 
founded  by  Dr.  Hermann  Brehmer,  of  Gorbersdorf,  Germany. 
To  him  rightfully  belongs  the  title  of  father  of  the  sanatorium 
idea.  The  principles  of  Brehmer 's  treatment  of  tuberculosis 
were  the  following: 

First — A  life  spent  in  the  open  air ;  second,  an  abundant  diet ; 
third,  constant  medical  supervision ;  fourth,  methodical  hill  climb- 
ing, as  an  exercise. 

With  the  exception  of  his  ideas  of  exercise,  which  are  con- 
siderably modified  in  modern  institutions,  Dr.  Brehmer 's  chief 
principles  of  treatment  are  at  present  in  vogue  in  every  sana- 
torium for  tuberculous  patients.  His  own  sanatorium  at  Gor- 
bersdorf  is  now  the  largest  private  institution  of  its  kind,  having 
accommodation  for  300  patients. 

From  the  time  of  Brehmer  the  idea  of  open  air  treatment,  as 
the  only  effective  method  of  combating  tuberculosis,  has  steadily 
advanced.  Germany  now  standing  in  the  foreground  with  the 
largest  number  of  institutions,  supported  by  the  state,  govern- 
ment, insurance  companies,  etc. 

In  our  own  country  Dr.  E.  L.  Trudeau,  of  Saranac  Lake,  New 
York,  was  the  first  to  establish,  in  1885.  the,  now  well  known, 
Adirondack  Cottage  Sanatorium. 

At  present  the  United  States  has  accommodations  for  about 
8.000  tuberculous  patients,  one-third  of  which  are  in  the  state 
of  New  York. 

The  energetic  campaign  in  the  United  States  against  tubercu- 
losis, during  the  last  five  years,  stimulated  sanatorium  building 
to  a  great  extent;  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  institutions 
scattered  throughout  the  United  States  and  Canada,  almost  one- 
half  were  built  during  the  last  five  years. 

The  country  is  awake  as  to  the  proper  methods  of  dealing  with 
the  "white  plague"  and  the  next  decade  will,  no  doubt,  bring 
greatly  increased  sanatorium  facilities  for  the  proper  care  of  the 
consumptive  individual. 

It  is  of  great  importance  to  us  to  know  what  is  the  situation  at 
present  in  regard  to  tuberculosis,  what  are  the  principles  of  sana- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  223 

torium  building  and  to  what  extent  a  sanatorium  is  a  factor  in  the 
crusade  against  this  disease. 

'  A  census  in  this  country  of  all  individuals  affected  with  tuber- 
culosis would  be  impossible  under  the  present  conditions;  still, 
from  the  total  annual  mortality  of  100,000  persons  from  this 
disease,  we  may  roughly  estimate  that  there  are  from  four  to  five 
hundred  thousand  tuberculous  individuals  in  the  United  States, 
while  total  accommodations  are  only  for  the  treatment  of  about 
8.000. 

Thirty  thousand  consumptives  walk  the  streets  of  New  York, 
while  all  the  institutions  in  the  entire  state  could  not  accommo- 
date even  ten  per  cent,  of  them. 

I  do  not  know  what  is  the  consumptive  population  of  Phila- 
delphia ;  if  it  is  twelve  to  fifteen  thousands,  then  the  entire  ac- 
commodations of  your  state  are  sufficient  only  for  the  care  of 
5%  of  them. 

In  our  own  city  of  Chicago  we  have  at  least  15,000  consump- 
tives, while  the  entire  State  has  hospital  and  sanatorium  accom- 
modations for  only  300,  of  which  160  beds  are  in  the  Dunning 
Poorhouse.  In  this  connection  should  be  mentioned  the  pro- 
posed Edward  Sanatorium  at  Naperville*,  near  Chicago;  this  in- 
stitution is  made  possible  by  the  generosity  of  Mrs.  Keith  Spalcl- 
ing,  a  director  of  the  Visiting  Nurse  Association  of  Chicago, 
which  association  conducted  last  summer  a  very  successful  camp 
for  tuberculous  poor,  at  Glencoe,  Illinois. 

The  next  few  years  may  bring  into  existence  a  large  number  of 
sanatoria  for  curable  cases  ,of  tuberculosis,  as  well  as  hospitals 
for  advanced,  but  we  can  never  hope  for  sufficient  accommo- 
dations for  all  tuberculous  patients,  unless  the  reduction  in  the 
prevalence  of  tuberculosis  is  brought  about  through  a  radical 
change  in  conditions  that  are  responsible  for  this  disease-,  and 
this  means,  of  course,  abolition  of  crowded  districts  through 
spreading  out  of  the  population,  a  sanitary  home  and  workshop, 
hours  of  work  commensurate  with  human  strength  and  wages 
sufficient  to  supply  the  needs  of  an  American  family.  Till  we 
reach  that  ideal  condition  of  affairs,  which  certainly  ought  not 
to  be  very  distant  in  our  country,  sanatoria  will  continue  to  take 
care  only  of  a  fraction  of  tuberculosis  cases,  and  while  their 


224  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE   FOURTH 

important  object  will  be  to  effect  a  cure  or  improvement  in 
patients  under  their  shelter,  their  chief  mission  will  remain  to 
teach  a  proper  mode  of  life  to  the  community  in  general  and  the 
consumptive  in  particular. 

The  present  conditions  in  every  large  city  of  this  country,  with 
its  enormous  number  of  tuberculous  individuals,  point  to  the 
necessity  of  local  sanatoria  near  every  city,  as  educational  centers 
for  the  spreading  of  the  gospel  of  life  in  pure  air  as  the  only 
proper  mode  of  life  for  every  human  being. 

In  its  modern  sense,  a  sanatorium  is  an  institution  built  in  such 
a  location  and  in  such  a  way,  that  the  tuberculous  patient  can  en- 
joy the.  benefits  of  open  air  life  during  the  entire  24  hours;  it 
means  also  a  suitable  nutritious  diet  and  strict  medical  super- 
vision. 

In  building  sanatoria  a  number  of  conditions  are  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

1.     Climate, 

The  climate  that  makes  open  air  life  through  the  entire  year 
more  feasible,  is  conceded  to  be  the  best,  provided  the  patient  is 
in  a  sanatorium,  where  by  the  strict  regime  of  the  institution  he 
is  to  avail  himself  fully  of  the  benefits  of  open  air  treatment. 

It  would  be  impossible  here  to  discuss  the  advantages  of  differ- 
ent climates ;  it  will  suffice  to  say  that  even  if  the  results  are  more 
gratifying  in  the  mountainous  regions  of  Colorado  or  other  states, 
we  certainly  can  never  hope  to  give  even  a  small  percentage  of 
our  consumptive  population  the  advantages  of  their  favorable 
climates.  It  is  certainly  useless  to  send  a  man  without  means  to 
Colorado,  Arizona  or  New  Mexico,  unless  admission  is  secured  for 
him  to  some  institution. 

In  transporting  poor  consumptives  to  other  climates,  the 
Jewish  charitable  organizations  all  over  the  country  are  the  only 
ones,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  to  make  provision  for  their  future 
maintenance. 

I  do  not  need  to  dwell  upon  the  great  record  of  the  National 
Jewish  Hospital  for  Consumptives  in  Denver,  with  which  you  are 
fully  familiar.  This  institution,  national  in  scope,  was  the  first 
to  start  the  procession  for  eradication  of  tuberculosis  among  the 
Jews  of  this  country ;  it  has  done  and  is  doing  grand  work  and 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  225 

we  should  do  everything  in  our  power  to  make  it  the  greatest 
monument  to  the  generosity  of  the  American  Jew.  In  its  superior 
appointments,  splendid  facilities  for  treating  first  stage  cases, 
humane  spirit,  etc.,  it  is  the  best  example  of  a  first  class  sana- 
torium and  as  such  it  certainly  deserves  a  much  more  liberal  sup- 
port all  over  the  country. 

Granting  all  the  advantages  of  more  favorable  climates,  the 
fact  remains  that  the  vast  majority  of  consumptive  cases,  par- 
ticularly among  the  poor,  have  to  be  taken  care  of  near  their 
homes. 

Statistics  of  sanatoria  in  home  climates,  like  Loomis,  Adiron- 
dack, in  New  York,  Rutland  and  Sharon  in  Massachusetts,  etc., 
show  that,  under  open  air  treatment,  arrest  of  disease  can  be 
accomplished  in  75  to  80%  of  first  stage  cases. 

In  institutions  where  all  stages  are  admitted,  open  air  treat- 
ment at  home  results  in  a  cure  of  25%  and  great  improvement, 
viz.,  considerable  prolongation  of  life  in  50 %  more. 

In  our  dealing  with  poor  consumptives  of  large  cities  we  must 
have  local  sanatoria. 

Even  if  the  state  supplies  one,  it  is  not  sufficient;  every  city 
of  any  proportion  should  have  a  local  sanatorium,  the  expense  of 
which  would  be  much  less  than  the  financial  loss  sustained 
through  the  rapid  decline  and  premature  death  of  the  majority 
of  the  tuberculous  poor  and  the  expense  of  supporting  widows 
and  orphans. 

2.     Suitable  Site  for  Sanatorium. 

The  plans  for  the  King  Edward  VII'.  Sanatorium  in  England 
call  for  ' '  an  elevated  and  sloping  site  with  a  sunny  exposure,  well 
sheltered  from  cold  winds,  a  dry  and  permeable  soil,  together 
with  an  abundant  supply  of  water."  An  elevation  of  at  least 
1.000  feet  is  considered  by  some  absolutely  essential  to  insure 
sufficient  purity  and  dryness  of  the  atmosphere,  which  are  of  con- 
siderable importance  in  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis  and  still  the 
results  are  excellent  in  institutions  built  at  much  lower  altitudes. 

Comparing  the  results  obtained  at  Sharon  Sanatorium,  250 
feet  above  the  sea  level,  and  Massachusetts  State  Sanatorium. 
J.100  feet.  Dr.  Bowditch,  who  is  at  the  head  of  both  institutions, 


226  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

finds  that  the  results,  if  anything,  were  somewhat  better  at 
Sharon. 

If  the  experience  so  far  obtained  is  in  favor  of  high  altitude, 
at  least  1.000  feet,  as  a  proper  location  for  a  sanatorium,  it  must 
be  admitted,  that  the  question  of  altitude  is  not  as  important  as  a 
porous  soil,  good  drainage,  shelter  from  harsh  winds,  sunny  ex- 
posure, good  water  supply,  properly  constructed  building,  nutri- 
tious diet,  etc. 

Build  your  sanatoria  and  camps  at  as  high  a  level  as  can  be 
obtained  near  your  home  city,  provided  other  conditions  are  ful- 
filled. 

Results  at  an  altitude  of  a  few  hundred  feet  will  be  just  as 
good  as  at  1,000  feet.  It  would  impede  greatly  the  creation  of 
proper  facilities  for  the  care  of  the  consumptive  poor,  if  any 
set  rule  is  laid  down  in  regard  to  the  altitude. 

Expedience  as  well  as  other  considerations  should  determine 
the  location  of  the  institution. 

As  to  nearness  to  the  city,  a  distance  of  thirty  to  forty  miles 
will  insure  air  that  is  not  contaminated ;  again  a  shorter  distance, 
dictated  by  circumstances,  may  give  just  as  good  results. 

3.     Character  of  Buildings. 

The  majority  of  European  sanatoria  consist  of  a  central  ad- 
ministration building  with  wings  on  either  side  for  the  housing  of 
patients. 

Large  verandas  surrounding  the  entire  front  are  utilized  for 
the  open  air  treatment.  The  building  may  be  two  or  three  stories 
high. 

Another  plan  is  a  group  of  small  cottages  around  a  central 
administration  building  as  exemplified  in  a  number  of  sanatoria 
in  this  country,  for  instance,  the  Loomis  and  Adirondack  Sana- 
toria in  New  York. 

Advantages  of  this  plan  consist  of  easier  classification  of 
patients,  more  homelike  surroundings,  greater  amount  of  fresh 
air,  etc. 

The  disadvantage  lies  in  increased  expense,  necessitated  by  a 
more  difficult  supervision,  extra  heating,  and  so  on. 

Cost  of  construction,  as  given  in  the  Prize  Essay  on  the  erection 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  227 

of  a  sanatorium  for  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis  in  England 
by  Dr.  Arthur  Latham,  is  as  follows : 

In  many  sanatoria  built  for  the  poor  the  cost  is  from  $1,250  to 
$1,500  a  bed.  The  expenses  are  much  greater  in  institutions 
•which  contain  single-bedded  rooms,  reaching  as  high  as  $3,000 
to  $5,000  a  bed. 

The  tendency  of  the  modern  sanatorium  construction  is  toward 
greater  simplicity  and  smaller  expense. 

What  we  need  is  more  accommodation  for  tuberculous  patients. 
Fine  exterior  of  buildings  is  of  no  importance;  it  does  not  pro- 
mote an  iota  the  chances  of  a  consumptive. 

A  local  sanatorium,  consisting  of  a  plain  administration  build- 
ing with  all  the  necessary  provisions  and  a  number  of  frame 
shacks  as  the  lean-to's  of  the  Loomis  Sanatorium,  is  conceded  to 
produce  just  as  good  results  as  more  imposing  buildings,  the 
ornamentations  of  which  frequently  impede  the  entrance  of  light 
and  air. 

It  is  estimated  that  an  up-to-date  sanatorium,  devoid  of  all 
unnecessary  ornamentation,  can  be  built  at  the  expense  of  $400 
per  patient. 

A  circular  issued  by  the  Ottawa  Tent  Colony  in  Illinois,  a 
private  institution,  conducted  by  Dr.  J.  "W.  Petit,  places  the 
expense  of  construction  at  $35,000,  which  includes  an  excellent 
two-story  administration  building,  waterworks,  first-class  bath- 
house, tents  for  patients,  etc.  The  total  number  of  patients  at 
present  being  sixty,  the  cost  of  construction  per  patient  amounts 
to  $600.  This  sum  will  be  greatly  reduced  with  the  gradual  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  patients. 

The  average  cost  of  maintenance  of  a  tuberculous  individual  in 
a  sanatorium  conducted  in  economical  way  amounts  to  not  less 
than  $9  to  $10  per  week. 

The  number  of  tuberculous  cases  requiring  sanatorium  treat- 
ment is  so  enormous  that  it  is  our  duty  to  provide  accommoda- 
tions at  the  least  possible  expense  of  construction,  using  any 
additional  money  in  giving  the  sufferer  the  best  kind  of  food 
and  medical  supervision. 

To  quote  the  ideas  of  Dr.  S.  A.  Knopf,  one  of  the  most  enthusi- 


228  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

astic  tuberculosis  workers  in  this  country,  the  mission  of  sanatoria 
is  very  manifold : 

1.  Removal  of  a  tuberculous  patient  to  a  sanatorium  means 
the  removal  of  a  center  of  infection,  which  may  claim  sooner  or 
later  many  lives. 

2.  A  sanatorium  gives  the  best  chance  of  cure,  particularly  to 
the  patient  in  the  first  stage. 

3.  The  consumptive  learns  to  live  right  and  on  his  discharge 
is  the  most  earnest  propagator  of  the  ideas  of  right  living. 

4.  It  trains  physicians  in  the  methods  of  early  recognition  of 
tuberculosis  and  the  only  rational  method  of  treatment  of  this 
disease. 

5.  It  teaches  the  gospel  of  a  closer  communion  with  nature 
and  orderly  life,  which  means  a  sturdier  citizenship,  freed  from 
all  kinds  of  disease  due  to  overcrowding,  filth  and  contaminated 
air. 

Under  ordinary  conditions  the  regular  mode  of  life  of  the  Jew, 
his  abstinence  from  alcohol,  etc.,  protect  him  to  a  considerable 
extent  against  the  ravages  of  tuberculosis.  The  diabolical  perse- 
cution by  certain  European  governments,  with  its  attendant  lack 
of  opportunity  to  earn  a  livelihood,  constant  anxiety,  frequently 
starvation — have  undermined  to  a  great  extent  his  resistance  to 
this  disease.  Thus,  we  witness  at  present  a  greater  prevalence 
of  tuberculosis  among  the  Jewish  masses  than  ever  before ;  this 
has  reference  also  to  the  acute  type  of  the  disease,  "quick  con- 
sumption," infrequent  among  Jews  under  normal  conditions,  at 
present  claiming  numerous  victims  in  every  large  city.  It  is 
our  sacred  duty  to  provide  better  housing  conditions  and  suitable 
occupations  for  our  immigrant  class. 

The  physical  make-up  of  our  brother  citizen  is  one  of  our 
greatest  concerns.  Among  all  agencies  helping  to  build  a  healthy 
citizen,  be  that  a  settlement,  a  city  homes  association,  an  agricul- 
tural colony,  etc.,  a  sanatorium  occupies  a  prominent  place.  Its 
influence  reaches  far  beyond  the  consumptive  himself;  it  stands 
as  an  exposition  of  a  right  kind  of  living.  The  Jewish  Charities 
of  every  large  city  have  provided  bountifully  for  the  treatment 
of  every  kind  of  disease. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  229 

Is  it  not  about  time  to  extend  a  helping  hand  to  the  poor  con- 
sumptive by  building  local  sanatoria  in  every  large  city? 

THE  CARE  OF  ADVANCED  CASES  OF  PULMONARY 
TUBERCULOSIS. 

A  PLEA  FOR  SCIENTIFIC,  PRACTICAL  AND  HUMANE  METHODS  OF 
ERADICATING   THE   WHITE   PLAGUE. 

DR.  C.  D.  SPIVAK,  Secretary  of  the  Jewish  Consumptives'  Relief 
Society,  Denver,  Colorado. 

The  crusade  against  contagious  diseases  in  general,  and  against 
pulmonary  tuberculosis  in  particular  assumes  with  each  succeed- 
ing year  a  more  definite  form.  From  the  survey  of  the  volumin- 
ous literature  on  the  subject  of  tuberculosis,  two  uncontrovertible 
facts  have  been  established :  First,  that  tuberculosis  is  an  infec- 
tious disease,  and,  second,  that  tuberculosis  is  a  curable  disease. 
The  solution  of  the  problem  must  be  reached,  therefore,  through 
two  avenues:  First,  in  so  far  as  it  is  infectious,  how  can  it  be 
prevented,  and,  second,  in  so  far  as  it  curable,  what  are  the  best 
methods  to  be  pursued.  There  are  two  distinct  ways;  the  one 
does  not  include  the  other. 

The  crusade  against  tuberculosis,  as  I  understand  its  meaning, 
and  purport,  does  not  occupy  itself  with  the  cure  of  the  disease, 
but  it  copes  with  the  greater  and  more  important  problem,  that 
of  preventive  medicine.  It  undertook  the  task  of  checking  the 
spread  of  the  disease,  with  a  view  of  eventually  exterminating  it 
from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

It  took  more  than  twenty-five  years  to  elaborate  the  method 
of  combating  tuberculosis,  and  yet  more  than  three  thousand 
years  ago,  the  method  of  combating  infectious  diseases  was  laid 
down  in  such  lucid  and  clear  terms  that  one  is  amazed  at  the 
stupidity  of  being  obliged  to  call  our  ignorance  "civilization," 
sluggish  thinking  ' '  progress, ' '  and  the  doling  of  alms  ' '  charity. ' ' 

' '  Let  us  bring  the  book  and  see, ' '  as  the  Talmudists  were  wont 
to  say.  Open  the  book  of  Leviticus,  Chapter  XIII.  Moses 
handled  the  crusade  against  infectious  diseases  thus :  "  If  a  man 


230  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

shall  have  in  the  skin  of  his  flesh  a  swelling,  a  rising,  or  a 
bright  spot"  which  might  develop  into  an  infectious  disease,  then 
he  shall  be  brought  for  an  examination  before  an  expert  health 
officer— a  priest.  If  the  symptoms  are  obscure  and  lack  definite- 
ness,  the  suspected  man  shall  be  quarantined,  and  be  re-examined 
at  intervals  of  seven  days  until  a  final  diagnosis  is  reached. 
Should  the  symptoms  warrant  the  diagnosis  of  an  infection,  ' '  the 
priest  shall  pronounce  him  unclean.  .  .  .  And  he  on  whom  the 
plague  is —  ...  shall  cover  himself  to  his  upper  lip  and  'un- 
clean, unclean'  shall  he  call  out.  All  the  days  whereon  the 
plague  which  rendereth  unclean  is  on  him,  he  shall  be  unclean ; 
alone  shall  he  dwell,  without  the  camp  shall  his  habitation  be. ' ' 

Thus  spake  the  great  law-giver ! 

The  theory  that  certain  diseases  are  ''unclean,"  which  was 
enunciated  centuries  ago,  has,  after  three  decades  of  hesitation, 
at  last  been  accepted,  and  we  now  gleefully  pride  ourselves  that 
we  are.  forsooth,  really  and  truly,  a  civilized  race.  The  practice, 
however,  that  one  thus  afflicted  shall  be  removed  from  his  sur- 
roundings, so  as  not  to  be  a  menace  to  the  community,  "alone 
shall  he  dwell;  without  the  camp  shall  his  habitation  be,"  this 
social  prophylactic  measure  has  not  as  yet  been  fully  understood, 
nor  thoroughly  recognized. 

The  work  that  is  now  being  carried  on  throughout  the  so-called 
"civilized"  world  will  remain  merely  an  abortive  attempt  at 
eradicating  the  evil,  as  long  as  the  rules  and  regulations  laid 
down  by  the  Mosaic  law  are  not  fulfilled  to  the  letter. 

Let  us  briefly  review  the  lesson  we  learned  about  tuberculosis : 

Tuberculosis  is  an  infectious  disease.  But  not  all  tubercular 
patients  are  a  menace  to  the  community.  Tuberculosis  of  the 
glands  of  the  neck,  of  the  spine,  of  the  hip  and  knee-joints,  etc., 
are  perfectly  harmless.  They  do  not  sow  the  seeds  of  tuberculosis, 
because  the  tubercle  bacilli  are  locked  up  in  the  body  and  can- 
not come  in  contact  with  the  outer  world.  Such  cases  are  called 
"closed"  tuberculosis. 

Tuberculosis  of  the  lungs  and  throat  does  not  become  a  source 
of  infection,  until  cough  and  expectoration  appear.  It  is  only 
when  the  sputum,  loaded  with  tubercle  bacilli,  comes  to  the  sur- 
face and  in  contact  with  the  internal  organs  of  another  human 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  231 

being  that  it  becomes  dangerous.  Such  cases  are  called  ''open" 
tuberculosis. 

But  even  cases  of  open  tuberculosis  differ  in  their  degree  of 
infectious  virulence.  Men  and  women  in  the  incipient  stage  of 
the  disease,  those  of  cleanty  habits  and  who  are  able  to  take  care 
of  themselves  are  perfectly  harmless.  I  would  prefer  as  a  com- 
panion an  intelligent  consumptive  to  a  Hercules  of  dirty  habits. 
The  most  dangerous  patients,  however,  are  those  who  are  ignorant, 
of  the  rudiments  of  personal  hygiene,  or  who  have  reached  such 
an  advanced  stage  of  the  disease,  when  through  weakness  and 
exhaustion  they  have  become  helpless,  and  are  unable  to  taka 
care  of  their  expectoration.  We  must  remember  that  the  danger 
of  tuberculosis  lurks  not  alone  in  the  expectorated  solid  sputum, 
but  also  in  the  tiny,  almost  microscopic  droplets  which  are 
showered  all  around  during  violent  coughing,  and  even  during 
the  process  of  articulation. 

Now,  viewing  the  question  of  tuberculosis  from  the  above  stand- 
point, which  is  the  standpoint  accepted  by  all  students  of  tuber- 
culosis, let  us  see  what  method  do  the  modern  crusaders  pursue 
in  their  efforts  to  exterminate  tuberculosis  from  the  face  of  the 
earth.  While  they  provide  sanatoria  and  hospitals  for  incipient 
eases,  for  such  who  do  not  spread  contagion  at  all,  or  whose 
liability  to  spread  the  disease  is  but  infinitesimal,  they  permit 
the  advanced  cases — open  tuberculosis,  the  source  and  fountain 
head  of  all  contagion— to  continue  the  work  of  wholesale  destruc- 
tion. Such  a  method,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  scientifically  ab- 
surd, practically  futile,  and  morally  brutal. 

The  war  cry  of  the  physician  and  the  sanitarian  is :  "  Remove 
the  cause."  I  shall  not  speak  of  the  predisposing  cause— poverty. 
Let  the  sociologist  grapple  with  this  problem.  The  direct  cause 
of  every  case  of  tuberculosis  is  a  preceding  advanced  case ;  and. 
therefore,  it  is  evident  that  the  cure  of  an  incipient  case  is  tanta- 
mount to  removing  the  effect,  which  is  not  scientific. 

That  we  cannot  hope  to  diminish  or  even  check  the  spread  of 
tuberculosis  while  harboring  the  advanced  cases  in  our  midst, 
is  such  a  self-evident  truth,  that  all  our  efforts  hitherto  made  in 
building  hospitals  and  sanatoria  for  incipient  cases  are  prac- 
tically futile. 


232  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

And,  since  from  a  psychological  standpoint,  the  sympathy  of 
normally  constituted  human  beings  is  in  direct  ratio  to  the  in- 
tensity of  the  suffering  they  witness— the  greater  the  suffering 
the  greater  the  sympathy  it  arouses,  the  more  the  helplessness 
the  greater  the  pity  it  evokes—surely  it  is  the  advanced  case,  the 
man  or  woman  who  is  racked  with  pain,  shattered  with  cough, 
consumed  with  fever,  a  helpless  living  corpse,  in  short,  the  ad- 
vanced case  with  all  the  horrors  and  tortures  it  represents,  who 
should  bring  forth  all  our  latent  humane  feeling,  and,  therefore, 
the  decadent  tendency  of  all  modern  sanatoria  to  help  only  those 
who  can  help  themselves  is  brutal. 

Had  the  contemplation  of  the  mistakes  made  by  groping 
humanity  not  been  such  a  sad  affair,  the  present  movement  to 
exterminate  tuberculosis  by  such  unscientific,  unpractical  and 
brutal  methods  would  appear  Quixotic— a  sort  of  fighting  the 
windmills. 

The  question  of  exterminating  tuberculosis  cannot  be  solved  by 
cheap  talk,  sickly  sentimentality,  and  fear  of  looking  squarely 
into  the  face  of  truth.  Especially  cheap  talk  will  not  do  it. 
If  we  cannot  organize  our  campaign  of  crusade  upon  such  a  basis 
that  eventually  every  advanced  case  "alone  should  dwell,  without 
the  camp  shall  his  habitation  be,"  if  we  cannot  build  sanatoria 
wherein  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  advanced  cases  could  be 
isolated  and  taken  care  of,  we  may  just  as  well  admit  to  our- 
selves that  we  are  spending  money,  time  and  breath  for  no  pur- 
pose. 

Hear  what  Robert  Koch  said  in  his  Nobel  Lecture  delivered  at 
Stockholm,  Nov.  12,  1905:  "We  must  not  hide  from  ourselves 
the  fact  that  the  crusade  against  tuberculosis  requires  money. 
In  fact,  the  whole  movement  is  a  question  of  money.  The  more 
free  beds  there  will  be  established  for  the  consumptives,  and  the 
better  the  families  of  the  afflicted  will  be  taken  care  of  at  their 
homes,  so  that  the  sick  may  be  free  from  worry  as  to  the  fate  of 
their  dear  ones,  the  sooner  will  tuberculosis  cease  to  be  the  disease 
of  the  masses." 

Once  the  question  of  eradicating  tuberculosis  will  be  viewed 
from  the  above  standpoint,  namely,  that  all  advanced  cases  must 
be  isolated,  I  am  optimist  enough  to  entertain  the  hope,  that  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  233 

means  wherewith  to  carry  on  this  work  will  be  forthcoming. 
Tuberculosis  although  a  disease  of  the  poor  masses,  yet  respects 
not  the  rich.  With  men  in  our  midst  who  own  millions  which 
they  cannot  use  up  while  living,  nor  save  with  them  their  children 
when  stricken  with  the  White  Plague,  it  should  not  be  at  all  a 
difficult  matter  to  raise  a  fund  of  ten  million  dollars  with  which 
to  place  this  movement  upon  a  scientific,  practical  and  humane 
basis.  The  poor  cannot  do  it.  The  rich  can  and  must  do  it.  Not 
only  do  they  owe  it  to  the  poor  who  have  helped  them  to  become 
rich,  but  they  owe  it  to  their  own  children  whose  welfare  they 
must  protect. 

Permit  me  to  cite  an  imaginary  example:  In  a  certain  city 
there  stand  two  institutions  for  combating  tuberculosis:  one 
erected  by  the  munificence  of  the  rich  for  taking  care  of  incipient 
cases  of  tuberculosis,  who  present  the  least  menace  to  the  com- 
munity wherein  they  dwell ;  the  other  institution,  erected  on  the 
pennies  of  the  poor  for  taking  care  of  advanced  cases  of  tuber- 
culosis who  are  a  constant  menace  to  their  fellows.  One 
institution  cures  tuberculosis — a  noble  mission,  no  doubt.  The 
other  institution  helps  to  exterminate  the  disease.  Which 
of  the  two  institutions  is  in  the  vanguard  of  the  crusade  against 
the  White  Plague,  I  leave  to  your  wisdom  to  decide. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  say  that  the  care  of  the  advanced  cases 
of  pulmonary  tuberculosis  consists  in  isolation,  and  that  you 
must  not  delude  yourselves  into  the  comfortable  attitude  of  mind 
and  soul  that  you  are  doing  great  things  by  helping  incipient 
eases.  You  commenced  at  the  wrong  end.  Read  once  more  the 
Bible:  "All  the  days  whereon  the  plague  which  rendereth  un- 
clean is  on  him,  he  shall  be  unclean ;  alone  shall  be  dwell ;  without 
the  camp  shall  his  habitation  be." 

THE  PRESIDENT:  The  next  paper — one  postponed  from  yes- 
terday— by  Mr.  Alfred  Muller  of  Denver  on  "Sanatoria  for 
Consumptives,"  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  the  "Statis- 
tics of  Institutional  Management." 


234  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

THE  SCOPE  OF  INSTITUTIONAL  MANAGEMENT  IN 
SANATORIA  FOE  CONSUMPTIVES. 

ALFRED  MULLER,  Secretary  of  the  National  Jewish  Hospital  for 
Consumptives,  Denver,  Colorado. 

The  aim  of  the  Sanitarium  for  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis 
in  its  earlier  stages,  should  be,  not  to  stretch  the  dollar,  but  to 
restore  human  vitality.  Its  slogan  should  be,  not  how  much  it 
can  save,  but  how  many.  Combined  efforts,  untiring,  unceasing, 
lead  to  this  goal.  The  physician's  skill,  the  institutional  man- 
agement, and  the  patient  himself,  all  must  co-operate. 

It  is  a  potent  fact,  self-evident,  that  nothing  is  of  so  much 
importance  in  the  care  and  cure  of  consumption,  as  the  internal 
management  of  an  institution  dedicated  to  this  purpose. 

In  matters  of  institutional  management,  the  sanitary  are  keep- 
ing pace  with  medical  methods.  In  fact,  one  hardly  knows  at 
times  where  medical  treatment  ends  and  management  or  super- 
intendence begins.  Take  for  instance,  the  subject  of  foods;  in 
this,  the  work  of  the  doctor  ends  with  the  prescription.  Its  in- 
stitutional complement  begins  with  the  purchase  of  the  right 
kind  of  food,  at  the  right  price  and  at  the  right  time. 

Purity,  freshness  and  reasonableness  all  have  their  degree  of 
importance.  When  I  say  "reasonableness,"  I  do  not  necessarily 
mean  cheapness.  Of  prime  consideration  are  purity,  freshness, 
and  above  all  whol^someness.  Several  of  our  largest  sanitaria 
for  the  treatment  of  consumption  find  it  necessary  in  order  to 
procure  unadulterated  products,  to  buy  the  crop  of  an  orchard 
and  have  it  canned  under  inspection ;  to  buy  the  butter,  milk  and 
eggs  of  sanitaria  inspected  farms  and  dairies. 

There  is  no  excuse,  however,  as  rule  for  paying  exorbitant 
prices  for  even  the  most  necessary  provisions.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  superintendent  to  watch  the  market  just  as  does  the  com- 
mission merchant. 

The  food  proposition  is  but  one  feature  in  which  institutional 
management  has  kept  pace  with  the  requirements  of  advanced 
medical  methods. 

Among  others,  appearance  and  general  hospital  cleanliness  are 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  235 

matters  of  the  most  vital  importance.  They  have  long  since 
drifted  out  of  the  realm  of  the  medical  and  into  that  of  the 
Superintendent  or  managerial  board. 

It  is  the  management  that  prepares  the  institution  with  the 
simplest  and  most  sanitary  of  equipments;  that  rejects  the  dra- 
peries that  catch  the  omnipresent  germ  and  the  useless  corners 
that  hold  the  deadly  dust;  that  provides  only  what  is  whole- 
some and  inviting. 

When  the  general  topic  of  the  day  was  submitted  to  me  I 
asked  for  enlightenment,  and  Avas  told  that  "this  paper  should 
be  largely  concerned  with  the  expenditure  of  the  funds,  and  the 
management,  financial  and  otherwise,  of  institutions,  and  was  not 
to  directly  concern  itself  with  the  large  question  of  tuberculosis. ' ' 
You  will  pardon  me  if,  in  my  understanding  of  these  instruc- 
tions, I  appear  to  stretch  them  to  fit  what  I  really  want  to  say  to 
you  to-day,  and  if  I  do  dive  into  the  general  topic  of  tuberculosis, 
it  will  be  solely  by  way  of  illustration. 

It  is  the  study  of  institutional  methods  in  sanitoria  for  the 
cure  of  tuberculosis  that  has  taught  us  that  we  have  no  confines 
that  are  not  confines  of  the  highest  humanity.  We  feel  that  the 
cause  of  the  sanitorimn  is  the  cause  of  each  individual  within  its 
care,  even  until  he  stands  before  the  world  unshackled  of  dis- 
ease, unbound  of  custom,  a  free  and  earning  entity. 

And  this  brings  me  logically  to  the  crying  problem  I  would 
put  to  you  to-day,  a  problem  I  have  often  put  to  myself,  and  the 
solution  of  which  is  still  in  the  future.  Worded  succinctly  it  is 
this:  Are  the  funds  of  our  great, charitable  and  correctional  in- 
stitutions used  beyond  the  narrowest  interpretation  of  their 
needs  ?  Should  not  the  management  of  these  institutions  be  con- 
cerned with  everything  that  is  basic  in  the  purposes  for  which 
they  were  created  ? 

One  of  the  great  problems— one  with  us  in  Colorado  in  the  insti- 
tution which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent,  the  National  Jewish 
Hospital  for  Consumptives— one  of  the  great  problems  is  that 
of  finding  for,  and  giving  to  the  patient  a  new  trade ;  of  finding 
a  new  calling  for  the  new  man. 

The  necessity  is  apparent— the  duty  is  imperative  of  keeping 
the  discharged  patient  away  from  the  sweat  shop,  from  dan- 


236  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

gerous  employments  which  have  caused  the  disease,  and  lead  him 
into  new  fields— different  occupation.  We,  in  our  Denver  insti- 
tution, have  had  in  the  past  several  years,  as  part  of  our  institu- 
tional management,  an  Employment  Committee  to  procure  for 
these  men  and  women  work  consistent  with  their  condition.  This 
committee  has  done  and  is  doing  splendid  work,  but  in  Colorado, 
and  I  take  it  this  holds  true  in  other  localities,  the  right  employ- 
ment for  these  new  men  and  women,  as  we  may  aptly  call  them, 
is  scarce,  and  the  wages  at  a  minimum.  We  are,  therefore,  now 
involving  plans  for  a  trade  school  within  the  institution,  to  teach 
him  an  industry  which  he  can  follow  after  his  discharge,  and 
one  the  strain  of  which  his  physique  can  stand— which  will  give 
him  the  opportunity  to  take  up  again  his  God-given  right  to 
labor  for  himself  and  the  loved  ones  dependent  upon  him,  which 
will  render  him,  not  a  mere  pittance  thrown  at  him  almost  as  a 
charity  offering,  but  yield  the  dignity  of  a  man's  return  for  a 
man's  labor. 

These  are  our  hopes,  as  yet  unrealized,  plans  as  yet  in  the  em- 
bryo, but  with  the  indefatigable  workers  at  the  head  of  our  in- 
stitution, hammering  at  this  ideal,  consummation  is  not  far 
distant. 

Our  experimental  work  is  far  enough  advanced  to  give  us  the 
assurance  that  we  may  solve  the  problem — a  new,  a  proper  call- 
ing for  the  new  man. 

The  management  further  believes  to  be  not  only  an  industrial 
necessity  for  these  stricken  ones,  but  a  physical  benefit  to  lead 
their  sorrow-burdened  minds  into  new  fields;  to  teach  the  un- 
taught immigrant,  who  forms  the  greatest  percentage  of  inmates 
in  the  National  Jewish  Hospital  for  Consumptives,  the  afflicted 
children  sent  there  for  treatment,  and  of  necessity  deprived  of 
their  usual  schooling,  the  rudimentary  English  branches. 

These  classes  are,  as  our  trade  school  will  be,  conducted  in  the 
open  air,  the  eternal  sunshine  of  Colorado  making  this  arrange- 
ment not  only  possible,  but  pleasurable,  with  graded  hours,  and 
under  such  regulations  as  will  not  interfere  with  the  tissue 
building  treatment  of  the  sanitarium. 

Thus  far  this  latter  school  has  been  experimental  only  and 
been  carried  on  by  volunteer  teachers,  not  always  to  be  depended 


NATIONAL   CONFERENCE   OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  237 

upon.  We,  of  Denver,  believe  the  experiment  to  be  a  success  and 
the  school  a  necessity,  and  hope  that  at  the  next  annual  meeting 
of  our  institution  the  National  Board  will  agree  with  the  Denver 
Board  of  Managers  that  this  work  should  be  permanent  and  be 
conducted  by  professional  teachers. 

I  repeat :  ' '  Should  not  the  funds  of  our  great  hospitals  for  the 
cure  of  consumption  be  used  beyond  the  narrower  interpretation 
of  their  needs  ? ' ' 

To  the  world  at  large  the  sanitarium  has  one  great  purpose— 
the  cure  of  tuberculosis,  to  test  methods  for  effectiveness,  to  send 
back  into  the  hum  of  life  the  men  and  the  women  and  children, 
educated  not  alone  to  combat  the  disease  in  themselves,  but  pre- 
pared to  teach  others  to  fight  the  white  plague. 

In  a  way  we  have  hospital  statistics,  that  is,  we  have  records 
of  cases  and  interesting  deductions— facts  of  prime  importance  in 
the  eradication  of  the  disease,  but  nothing  uniform  and  nothing 
concerted. 

There  is  no  lesson  of  great  value  to  know  the  per  capita  expense 
of  the  various  institutions  for  the  cure  of  tuberculosis.  What 
you  demand  for  the  funds  allotted  is  achievement.  Show  me  an 
institution  of  this  kind  whose  chief  pride  is  in  its  low  per  capita, 
and  I  will  show  you  one  whose  aims  are  cramped  and  whose  ac- 
complishments are  narrow  and  incomplete. 

The  purpose  of  the  sanitarium  is  as  high  and  as  deep  as  the  ne- 
cessity that  created  it.  It  should  delve  back  to  the  source  of  the 
thing  and  look  forward  to  its  elimination.  Its  work  should  not  be 
random,  but  based  upon  world-wide  aim.  For  the  need  of  one 
is  but  the  epitome  of  the  need  of  hundreds  of  thousands. 

Each  hospital  or  sanitarium,  I  find,  works  out  its  immediate 
and  superficial  problems  without  any  reference  to  concerted  ef- 
fort. A  thousand  tremendous  questions  concerned  with  the  eradi- 
cation of  the  disease  are  tentatively  approached,  but  the  greatest 
method  of  all,  that  of  working  on  the  same  general  lines  always, 
seems  utterly  impossible  of  realization.  The  result  is  that  the 
funds  expended  by  our  sanitaria  in  the  war  of  so-called 
research  brings  us  the  minimum  of  good,  for  whatever  is  done  is 
individual — spasmodic. 

There  is  a  purpose  in  the  creation  of  our  sanitaria  far  beyond 


238  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

the  curative  end,  and  the  sooner  we  realize  that  the  funds  of 
these  institutions  should  be  at  least  partially  expended  in  the 
preparation  of  what  I  shall  call  concerted  historic  statistics,  the 
sooner  we  shall  have  data  that  may  completely  revolutionize  our 
methods  of  fighting  the  white  plague.  In  other  words,  I  believe 
that  the  duties  of  the  officials  of  the  sanitaria  do  not  begin  and 
end  with  the  most  perfunctory  imaginable  statistical  informa- 
tion concerning  patients,  and  their  medical  care.  I  believe  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  our  sanitaria  to  extend  at  least  a  portion  of  their 
funds  in  the  most  painstaking  search  into  the  lives  of  the  patients, 
into  the  surroundings  in  which  the  contagion  came  upon  them, 
into  the  diseases  of  kin.  And  these  researches  must  be  thorough 
and  constant,  they  must  be  on  the  same  general  lines  in  every 
sanitarium  in  the  world;  researches  not  based  upon  imperfect 
medical  knowledge  but  upon  such  a  carefully  prepared  medical 
substructure  that  no  medical  practitioner,  no  sanitarium  or 
society  could  mistake  its  way. 

In  fact,  the  necessity  for  something  of  this  kind  has  cried  for 
a  hearing  almost  in  vain  until  now.  At  the  meeting  in  Wash- 
ington this  month  it  is  possible  that  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Vincent 
Bowditch,  of  Boston,  in  this  direction  will  bear  fruit.  At  any 
rate,  a  tentative  basis  for  uniformity  in  statistical  research  has 
been  submitted  to  sanitaria  officials  all  over  the  country,  and  the 
subject  will,  at  least,  as  one  medical  gentleman  put  it  to  me.  "be 
hammered  out."  The  so-called  Turban  plan,  which  divides  con- 
sumptives into  four  classes,  but  which  it  is  not  in  my  province 
to  discuss,  is  also  to  be  submitted  at  Washington.  Let  us  at  least 
hope  that  something  will  be  done. 

We  do  not  realize  how  meagre  our  statistical  information  i,-. 
Taken  together  we  have  made  no  very  decided  advance  since  the 
days  of  Hippocrates,  who  knew  definitely  the  proportion  of  mor- 
tality .to  age  in  victims  of  tuberculosis.  We  have  never  fully 
realized  the  dread  character  of  the  disease  in  its  incipiency.  As 
one  practitioner  put  it,  ' '  Let  a  leper  with  but  a  sore  on  his  hand, 
appear,  and  humanity  isolates  him  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning. 
Yet,  let  a  consumptive  appear  with  a  half  eaten  lung  hidden  from 
sight,  and  we  think  nothing  of  it. ' ' 

It  is  the  insidious  nature  of  the  disease  that  makes  statistics  so 
necessary.  The  bacillus  works  long  and  works  silently,  and  its 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  239 

grip  tightens  unknown  to  patient  or  to  kin.  It  is  this  feature  of 
it  that  makes  it  so  necessary  to  awaken  the  world  to  the  nature 
of  the  peril,  not  alone  by  giving  matter-of-fact,  largely  unheeded 
instructions,  but  by  showing  the  frightful  death  rate  by  giving 
definite  ideas  concerning  the  mortality  rate  from  certain  occupa- 
tions, by  teaching  the  proper  sanitary  mode  of  living. 

Statistics  that  cover  millions  of  cases  are  what  we  want— sta- 
tistics that  will  convince  people  that  by  proper  precautions  this 
great  danger  can  be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  peril  has  tre- 
mendous proportions.  The  remedy  must  have  like  proportion. 

Instead  of  a  record  of  200  patients  on  some  vital  point,  I 
would  have  the  record  of  2.000,000  patients.  In  place  of  sporadic 
investigation  I  would  have  it  so  general,  so  perfect,  so  effective 
that  the  deductions  would  awaken  the  world  to  a  realization  of 
its  peril.  You  ask  me  why  the  government  does  not  undertake 
this.  I  can  only  answer  in  the  words  of  a  famous  statistician: 
"The  only  mortality  statistics  of  a  reliable  character  are  those 
Avith  whose  collections  the  census  had  nothing  to  do."  Or  from 
the  pen  of  Dr,  Oressy  L.  Wilbur;  "No  one  knows  except  by  con- 
jecture what  the  death  rate  in  the  United  States  is,  nor  can  the 
relative  prevalence  of  the  important  infectious  diseases  be  satis- 
factorily determined  from  the  census  data." 

' '  Two  things  alone  defy  the  power  of  immortal  gods, ' '  said  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  "figures  and  the  past."  And  when  once  you  have 
circled  the  globe  in  your  search  for  accurate  data,  when  once 
you  have  thundered  them  at  humanity,  you,  too,  will  find  in 
figures  the  lever  that  will  lift  this  plague  from  our  disease- 
burdened  frames. 

Statistics  of  hungering  school  children  brought  all  England  to 
its  feet  in  shame  and  indignation.  And  statistics  properly  com- 
piled by  our  sanitaria  will  awaken  even  the  submerged  world  to 
the  necessity  of  better,  cleaner  living.  Why,  the  little  that  has 
been  done  in  the  way  of  concerted  health  board  work  has  had  its 
effect  in  reducing  the  death  rate  from  consumption.  How  much 
more  effective  will  be  the  mighty  hand  of  a  thousand  sanitaria? 
The  educational  work  that  is  now  being  done  under  the  auspices 
of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuber- 
culosis is  good  and  will  bear  fruit. 


240  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

When  you  supplement  your  advice  with  incontrovertible  con- 
clusions, when  you  supplement  "instructions  on  prevention, "  with 
an  array  of  appalling  figures  that  bring  the  truth  home  to  even 
the  most  ignorant  or  most  unsanitary  household,  you  will  have 
put  the  wedge  that  will  eventually  drive  out  the  disease. 

In  Germany  they  have  at  least  made  a  beginning.  The  state 
insurance  companies  are  themselves  paying  for  the  erection  and 
the  care  of  sanitaria,  finding  it  cheaper  to  search  out  the  disease 
in  the  earliest  possible  stages  when  it  can  be  thoroughly  eradi- 
cated, to  restore  the  policy  holder  to  an  insurance-paying  basis, 
then  to  be  mulcted  for  heavy  sick  benefits  during  a  lingering  ill- 
ness in  the  last  stages  of  the  disease,  and  for  the  full  life  insur- 
ance afterwards.  How  well  this  principle  applies  to  our  local 
charity  fields !  Think  of  the  saving  of  our  relief  societies  all  over 
the  country  if  a  similar  plan  were  adopted  here— if  in  addition 
to  proposed  registration,  excellent  as  far  as  it  goes,  compulsory 
inspection  for  tuberculosis  be  had  in  every  home  in  the  land. 
Think  you  that  it  is  impossible  ?  Vaccination  is  compulsory  and 
the  law  is  obeyed.  We  are  going  through  the  schools  daily  to 
catch  the  first  signs  of  contagious  diseases.  Why  not  examine 
for  signs  of  tuberculosis?  It  is  easy  to  educate  people  to  the 
necessity  of  government  paternalism  in  a  given  direction  if  they 
know  their  peril.  Gather  the  facts  through  the  sanitaria  of  the 
world,  summarize  them  into  telling  arguments,  then  placard  them 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  see  how  quickly  the 
people  will  demand  the  inspection  which  they  might  now,  with 
the  meagre  knowledge  at  hand,  resent. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  the  duties  of  the  sanitaria  for  the  cure 
of  tuberculosis  are  as  broad  as  are  the  sufferings  they  would 
assuage,  as  deep  as  the  causes  of  the  disease,  and  as  high  as  its 
complete  eradication.  Not  alone  is  at  stake  the  cure  of  the  com- 
partively  small  number  within  the  protecting  radius  of  the  sani- 
tarium, but  your  safety  and  mine,  the  protection  of  the  whole 
human  family. 

DISCUSSION. 

Miss  ANNIE  HILLKOWITZ,  Denver:  I  would  like  to  say  some- 
thing of  the  Jewish  Consumptives  Relief  Society.  It  has 
partly  overcome  the  problem  of  what  the  patients  should  do 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  241 

after  they  come  out  of  the  sanatorium.  We  are  lucky  enough 
to  have  twenty  acres  of  ground  outside  of  Denver.  We  have 
an  agriculturist  there  who  teaches  the  patients  farming,  both 
practical  and  theoretical;  of  course,  always  subject  to  the  doc- 
tor's orders,  and  they  are  allowed  to  work  and  learn  farming, 
so  that  when  dismissed  from  the  institution  employment  is 
found  for  them  on  farms.  And  you  know  Colorado  is  also  a 
farming  State,  so  that  they  can  pursue  the  life  of  the  farmer, 
which,  you  all  know,  is  the  best  life  for  a  consumptive.  Then, 
also,  we  have  our  own  poultry  yard,  so  that  the  eggs  are  always 
fresh  served  for  the  institution ;  we  have  also  our  own  dairy,  so 
that  the  milk  is  the  freshest,  and  thus,  in  my  opinion,  the  ex- 
pense is  lessened.  Pure  milk  is  given  and  we  have  the  eggs 
right  there,  and  the  milking  is  done  on  the  ground;  that  is  partly 
provided  by  the  Jewish  Consumptive  Relief  Society  in  their  ag- 
ricultural department. 

MR.  SAMUEL  GRABFELDER,  Louisville :  I  did  not  intend  to  say 
anything  on  the  subject,  because  I  am  under  the  impression  that 
this  Convention  is  more  for  the  purposes  of  the  cure — at  least 
this  evening's  deliberation  is  more  for  the  purpose  of  hearing 
papers  read  as  to  the  cure  and  stamping  out  of  this  disease,  in 
preference  to  hearing  about  individual  institutions.  My  idea 
was  and  is  to  correct,  perhaps,  an  error  that  inadvertently  will 
impress  itself  upon  your  minds,  or  the  idea  has  been 
impressed  upon  your  minds,  that  is,  that  the  National 
Jewish  Hospital  at  Denver  is  only  for  incipient  cases.  That  is 
not  quite  true.  We  take,  in  the  first  place,  consumptives  in  the 
first  and  second  stages.  When  these  patients  are  examined  by 
physicians  throughout  the  land,  at  their  homes,  you  know,  and 
I  know,  and  the  doctors  know  that  they  will  quite  frequently 
close  an  eye  and  send  us  cases  already  in  an  advanced  stage  or 
in  the  third  stage.  Now  we  do  take  first  and  second  stages,  and 
we  do  get  quite  frequently  those  in  the  third  stage  of  consump- 
tion. I  want  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  members  of  this 
conference  the  fact  that  this  is  true.  The  National  Jewish  Hos- 
pital for  Consumptives  was  opened  in  December,  1899.  Since 
that  time,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  we  have  had  in  that  institution 


242  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

900  patients.      We  have  turned  out  over  750    thoroughly    and 
positively  cured. 

Unfortunately,  ninety-five  per  cent,  at  least  of  our  patients 
are  foreigners  and  know  nothing  about  the  English  language. 
Now  I  think,  in  order  to  fit  a  man  in  this  country  to  make  him 
a  breadwinner,  outside  of  doing  manual  labor,  he  ought  to  know 
the  rudiments  of  English.  If  I  can  get  the  assistance,  I  am  go- 
ing to  start,  in  our  Hospital,  a  school  with  someone  to  teach  our 
patients  how  to  read  and  write  and  speak  the  English  language 
They  can  do  all  that  by  the  time  they  get  cured  of  con- 
sumption, and  when  ready  to  be  discharged  they  will  be  fitted  to 
go  out  in  the  world  and  understand. 

Another  point  is  that  of  starting  a  loan  association  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Hospital  at  Denver.  I  believe  that  fifty  or  sixty 
per  cent,  of  the  patients  that  we  turn  out  of  the  Hospital  who 
are  cured,  if  they  could  find  some  sort  of  work  in  Denver  or  in 
Southern  California  or  New  Mexico  or  a  portion  of  Texas,  or 
through  that  zone — if  they  had  some  good  employment  and 
could  stay  out  there  and  make  a  living,  could  not  merely  live 
and  be  healthy,  but  they  could  send  back  to  the  cities— to  Phila- 
delphia, New  York  or  Chicago  or  wherever  it  might  be — for 
their  families  and  support  them,  and  be  not  alone  healthy  but 
happy.  I  am  satisfied  that  I  am  going  to  start  that  loan  asso- 
ciation for  the  Denver  Hospital.  I  have  worthy  patients  who 
ought  to — want  to — go  into  some  little  business  or  who  can  start 
some  little  farm — something  from  which  he  or  she  can  make  a 
living.  We  are  going  to  keep  them  there  and  assist  them  to 
do  so. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  I  trust  when  the  Denver  Hospital  people 
start  that  loan  association  they  will  not  forget  that  the  Russian 
Jews  in  America  are  the  ones  that  have  had  the  most  successful, 
best  managed,  best  systemized  loan  association  of  which  we  know 
anything. 

MRS.  SERAPHINE  PISKO,  Denver:  I  just  want  to  say  a  word 
about  the  care  of  incurable  consumptives.  I  consider  it  very 
important.  While  I  'personally  have  been  very  closely  con- 
nected with  a  hospital  that  is  intended  to  aid  the  work  of  cur- 
ing consumptives,  I  have  never  for  one  moment  forgotten  the 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  243 

great  importance  of  taking  care  of  incurable  consumptives.  I 
believe  that  that  is  a  work  that  we  have  not  even  begun  to  do  in 
this  country,  although  a  great  deal  has  been  said  and  a  great 
deal  has  been  done  in  that  direction.  I  believe,  furthermore, 
that  it  would  be  an  absurdity  to  say  we  are  going  to  send  every 
incurable  consumptive  to  Colorado,  to  Texas,  to  Arizona  or  to 
Nevada ;  but  I  say  that  every  city  and  every  State  has  a  duty — 
a  sacred  duty  toward  its  incurable  consumptives,  and  the  sooner 
every  city  and  State  will  take  up  that  question,  the  sooner  we 
are  going  to  begin  to  touch  the  problem — the  real  problem — of 
tuberculosis.  In  the  sanatorium  out  west  we  can  help  a  few 
persons,  and  we  can  do  a  great  educational  work  with  those 
few  persons,  because  we  can  send  them  home  with  a  lot  of 
knowledge  as  to  how  tuberculosis  patients  may  prevent  the 
spread  of  the  disease;  but  we  cannot  begin  to  think  of  caring 
for  the  incurables,  and  we  cannot  begin  to  permit  all  of  the 
cities  and  all  af  the  States  to  empty  their  incurable  tuberculosis 
patients  into  those  Western  States.  Now,  it  seems  to  me 
that  this  is  what  the  members  of  this  Convention  ought  to 
agitate  in  their  homes :  Every  city  that  is  big  enough  ought  to 
have  a  sanatorium  for  incurable  consumptives.  I  say  it  is  your 
duty  to  take  care  of  them  at  home,  and  when  you  send  them 
away  from  home,  knowing  they  are  incurable,  you  are  shifting 
responsibility ;  you  are  shirking  a  duty.  It  is  your  duty  to  take 
care  of  incurable  consumptives,  and  your  duty  to  have  provided 
places  to  take  care  of  incurable  consumptives.  When  you  send 
them  away  because  you  want  to  be  rid  of  them  you  are  doing  a 
crime.  Yon  must  not  shift  that  responsibility.  You  have  got 
to  do  the  work  at  home,  and  you  have  got  to  have  local  sanato- 
ria for  incurable  consumptives.  Make  them  as  comfortable 
as  you  can.  Put  the  sanatoria  in  the  country,  if  you  will, 
but,  for  Heaven's  sake,  don't  attempt  to  send  all  incurable  con- 
sumptives to  some  small  community  out  West  and  to  communi- 
ties already  overburdened. 

DR.  S.  SOLIS  COHEN,  Philadelphia:  We  have  heard  several 
parts  of  the  truth  set  forth  by  several  speakers,  each  one  setting 
forth  that  particular  truth  which  he  had  in  mind  very  earn- 
estly. Now  these  truths  are  not  conflicting.  They  make  up 


244  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE   FOURTH 

part  of  the  great  truth  which  we  have  to  consider  in  this  very 
complicated  problem.  When  one  gazes  for  a  long  time  at  a 
small,  bright  object  he  becomes  hypnotized.  There  is  nothing 
brighter  than  the  truth,  and  if  you  gaze  for  a  long  while  at  one 
small,  bright  vista  of  truth  you  become  hypnotized  and  blind  to 
all  the  rest  of  the  light,  and  therefore  any  man  is  to  be  pardoned 
if  he  comes  before  a  gathering  like  this  and  sets  forth  his  con- 
tribution to  the  subject  in  a  very  earnest  and  enthusiastic  way, 
even  though  he  is  blind  to  the  rest  of  it. 

Now  this  problem  of  tuberculosis  is  so  enormous  that  one  needs 
to  look  over  the  statistics  for  some  time  to  find  out  how  enor- 
mous it  is.  The  statistics  are  very  imperfect — the  statistics  of 
morbidity  of  tuberculosis — the  number  of  cases  actually  exist- 
ing at  any  one  time  anywhere — are  absolutely  inadequate.  For 
example,  I  had  a  talk  with  President  Abbott  of  the  Bureau  of 
Health  to.-day,  and  he  gave  me  some  figures  from  the  reports  to 
that  bureau.  For  example,  in  the  whole  year  1904  there  were 
only  reported  2,594  cases;  in  the  year  1905  there  were  only  re- 
ported 2,703  cases;  in  four  months  of  the  year  1906  there  have 
been  reported  2,085  cases — as  many  eases  in  four  months  as 
were  reported  in  previous  years.  That  does  not  mean  that  tu- 
berculosis is  on  the  increase;  it  means  that  since  January  1  the 
physicians,  have  been  reporting.  A  great  deal  of  the  trouble  in 
reporting  cases  is  due  to  unwillingness.  If  you  take  the  sta- 
tistics for  1906  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  as  correct  (and  in 
my  judgment  it  is  only  about  half  the  number  of  actual  cases) 
but,  assuming  it  to  be  true  that  there  were  2,085  new  cases  of 
tuberculosis  developed  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  three 
months  of  the  present  year — assuming  that  the  average  will  con- 
tinue throughout  the  year  (as  it  has  been  pretty  steady  for  those 
months),  that  would  mean  about  8,000  new  cases  reported  in  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  in  one  year.  Now,  the  average  life  of 
cases  of  tuberculosis  under  all  circumstances,  treated,  untreated, 
neglected  and  otherwise,  is  about  four  years.  That  means  that 
for  every  new  case  reported  there  are  three  other  cases  in  exist- 
ence, giving  some  25,000  cases  of  consumption  existing  in  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  at  the  present  time.  To  extend  that  pro- 
portion throughout  the  United  States  would  not  be  fair,  because 
in  the  country  conditions  are  better,  but  multiplying  25,000  not 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  245 

by  seventy  to  make  seventy  millions  against  the  million  and  half 
in  Philadelphia,  but  multiply  only  by  fifty  and  see  what  an 
enormous  number  of  consumptives  exists.  Say  that  only  one 
tenth  of  these  need  charitable  care,  you  have  a  hundred  thou- 
sand persons  in  the  United  States  needing  assistance  because  they 
are  afflicted  with  tuberculosis.  Now,  each  one  of  these  persons 
needs  to  have  spent  upon  him  at  least  $500  in  a  year,  to  say 
nothing  of  taking  care  of  his  dependents,  and  that  makes  the 
enormous  sum  of  $50,000,000  in  a  year  which  it  is  neces- 
sary to  raise  if  charitable  institutions  are  going  to  han- 
dle at  all  the  problem  of  the  dependence  of  the  sick,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  still  larger  problem  of  prevention ;  so  that  it 
takes  everybody  to  work,  and  everybody  to  work  in  every  way  he 
can.  But  the  prevention  of  the  disease,  as  has  been  said  here, 
is  much  more  important  than  the  care  even  of  the  suffering. 
Moses  has  been  alluded  to,  and  Moses  had  to  let  a  generation  die 
in  the  wilderness  before  he  could  take  the  people  into  the  prom- 
ised land.  We  have  to  look  at  these  problems  after  all  not  al- 
together in  a  sympathetic  way  but  in  a  cold-blooded  way.  It  is 
necessary  to  care  properly  for  the  sick;  it  is  much  more  im- 
portant to  see  what  can  be  done  in  the  way  of  prevention.  Even 
if  the  old  generation  dies  out,  let  the  new  generation  have  a 
chance  to  live. 

Now  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  several  of  the  papers  allude  to 
the  fact  that  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis  was  largely  socio- 
logical. I  am  not  a  sociologist,  but  I  will  go  further  and  say  that 
the  problem  of  prevention  is  entirely  an  economic  question,  tf 
the  economists  will  solve  the  problem  of  poverty,  tuberculosis 
will  disappear.  The  prevention  of  tuberculosis  depends  upon 
two  things — low  rents  and  high  wages.  Now  that  is  the  way  to 
prevent  tuberculosis  in  the  coming  generations.  Make  it  possi- 
ble for  the  present  generation  to  have  low  rents  and  higher 
wages.  It  is  a  housing  problem ;  it  is  a  nourishing  problem,  and 
you  have  to  solve  that.  Just  think;  it  has  been  said  here  that 
there  is  provision  in  the  whole  of  the  United  States  at  the  pres- 
ent time  for  8,000  tuberculosis  patients,  and  there  were  2,000  new 
cases  reported  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  the  first  three  months 
of  the  year,  and  then  talk  about  your  accommodations !  You  have 
got  to  look  at  the  largeness  of  the  problem,  and  you  have  to  take 


246  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE   FOURTH 

it  at  its  root.  Tubercle  bacilli  can  come  and  go  and  do  no 
harm  to  a  perfectly  healthy  man  unless  injected  into  his  veins. 
Someone  said  years  ago — in  1830,  I  think —  it  is  impossible  to 
learn  how  to  make  a  consumptive  man  well,  but  that  by  learning 
to  pursue  the  opposite  course  we  may  prevent  it,  and  he  told  his 
pupils  how  to  make  a  man  consumptive.  He  said:  "Let  him 
dwell  in  the  damp,  dark  and  dirt;  let  him  be  poorly  nourished; 
let  him  be  harassed  and  worried  and  let  him  not  know  from  day 
to  day  where  a  living  is  coming  from  or  how  his  children  are  to 
be  taken  care  of,  and  you  will  make  him  a  consumptive.  Take 
him  out  in  the  air  and  light,  feed  him,  give  him  a  chance  to  work 
in  the  free  open  air  and  he  will  not  become  consumptive. ' '  That 
is  just  as  true  after  the  discussion  as  before  the  discussion  on 
tuberculosis.  If  you  say  we  want  to  prevent  consumption,  you 
have  got  to  study  how  to  make  rents  low  so  that  people  can  have 
plenty  of  space,  so  that  we  won't  have  over-crowded  tenements; 
so  that  we  won't  have  ten  families  living,  as  we  do  in  Philadel- 
phia, in  a  house  not  big  enough  for  two.  When  you  say  to  a 
consumptive,  ' '  Sleep  in  a  room  by  yourself  and  keep  all  windows 
open"  and  that  man  has  to  sleep  with  six  others — a  wife  and 
children — you  might  just  as  well  talk  Choctaw.  We  are  doing 
as  Napoleon  did.  You  know  how  he  drove  with  his  cannons 
that  broke  through  the  ice.  Organized  society  is  driving  mil- 
lions into  the  waters  of  consumption;  then  we  put  out  in  boats 
and  say,  "Take  thousands." 

Now,  then,  coming  down  to  palliation.  I  want  to  heartily 
endorse  what  was  said  about  the  local  sanatoria.  If  Ave  must 
only  palliate  and  cannot  prevent,  then  we  have  to  take  care  of 
those  who  cannot  take  care  of  themselves  and  who  cannot  be 
taken  care  of  by  their  families  and  who  are  sources  of  danger 
to  the  whole  community.  We  have  to  take  care  of  them,  and 
we  have  to  take  care  of  them  in  Philadelphia,  if  we  are  Philadel- 
phians;  if  we  are  New  Yorkers,  in  New  York.  They  should 
never  be  sent  away  from  home.  I  consider  it  criminal  to  send 
or  to  invite  advanced  cases  of  consumption  to  Denver  or  any 
other  climatic  city.  You  have  got  to  begin  the  care  at  home, 
and  properly,  and  there  must  be  large  provision.  Now.  I 
am  not  a  socialist,  but  I  realize  facts,  and  the  only  concern  thai 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  247 

can  provide  the  means  to  take  care  of  poor  consumptives  at  home 
is  the  State.  "We  must  be  willing  to  tax  ourselves  to  do  it.  We 
can  buy  proper  buildings  and  lands  and  prevent  some  of  the 
over-crowding  that  now  increases  the  number  of  consumptives 
and  now  makes  hopeless  the  attempt  to  take  care  of  advanced 
eases  in  their  surroundings.  We  have  got  to  invoke  the  power 
of  the  State  to  suppress  nuisances  if  we  cannot  do  it  in  any  other 
constitutional  way.  We  must  blow  up  by  dynamite,  if  we  can- 
not do  it  in  any  other  way,  some  of  the  back  to  back  houses  and 
rear-court  houses  and  the  like,  as  they  did  in  San  Francisco  to 
stop  the  spread  of  the  fire.  Consumption  is  as  bad,  practically, 
as  fire,  and  we  can  use  the  same  measure  to  prevent  it.  If  land- 
lords won't  consent,  landlords  must  be  made  to  see  their  duty, 
and  the  State  must  exercise  the  right.  I  stand  subject  to  cor- 
rection by  better  authority. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  Judicially  and  as  layman,  the  chair  is  en- 
tirely in  accord. 

DR.  COHEN:  Now,  then,  as  Jews,  with  the  problem  of  the 
Jewish  consumptive,  what  are  we  going  to  do?  If  we  are  go- 
ing to  take  advanced  consumptives  and  put  them  in  places  where 
there  are  conditions — in  beds — where  they  can  have  a  chance  to 
recover  (which  sometimes  occurs  even  in  advanced  cases),  we 
have  to  recognize  that  the  poor  Jew  wants  to  respect  the  dietary 
laws,  and  whether  we  strictly  observe  the  dietary  laws  or  do  not. 
we  have  got  to  have  our  dietary  laws  observed  in  our  hospitals 
and  homes,  and  if  anybody  says  that  perfectly  proper  food  for 
a  consumptive  patient  cannot  be  fed  with  strict  regard  to  the 
dietary  law,  I  say  that  man  is  mistaken.  Now  I  say  that  from 
study  and  experience  as  a  physician — not  merely  as  a  Jew. 

There  are  several  other  problems  brought  up  here.  I  do  not 
want  to  take  too  long  a  time,  and  I  will  conclude  with  reference 
to  only  one,  of  which  I  made  a  note,  and  that  is  this:  It  has 
been  well  said  that  after  you  get  a  man  cured  (speaking  now  of 
incipient  and  advanced  cases — not  too  far  advanced  cases)  after 
you  get  a  man  cured  and  the  disease  arrested,  or  whatever  it  may 
be,  and  you  send  him  back  into  the  same  conditions  out  of  which 
he  came,  it  simply  means  that  it  is  like  pulling  a  man  out  of  the 
water,  drying  him.  feeding  him.  clothing  him.  and  tumbling  him 


248  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

back  into  the  water  again.  You  have  got  to  have  an  industrial 
sanatorium,  and  you  have  to  further  such  broad,  magnanimous 
projects  as  that  which  we  have  heard  to-night — the  proposed 
loan  association,  by  which  people  can  be  set  up  on  their  feet  and 
enabled  to  earn  their  living,  and  the  only  place  that  consump- 
tives can  earn  a  living  is  out  of  doors — in  the  sunshine— in  the 
open  air. 

DR.  Louis  JURIST,  Philadelphia :  It  appears  to  me  that  it  is  not 
any  longer  the  duty  of  the  physician  to  cure  or  prevent  tubercu- 
losis. The  medical  profession  is  the  only  profession  in  the  world 
that  is  constantly  busy  trying  to  rob  itself  of  its  own  work — its 
bread  and  butter — and  showing  the  people  how.  It  is  not  any 
more  the  function  of  the  doctor  to-day  to  cure  tuberculosis ;  it  is 
the  business  of  the  State.  It  is  very  well  to  establish  sanatoriums 
and  send  patients  there,  and  very  well  to  provide  for  advanced 
cases,  but  as  long  as  men  are  willing  to  make  thousands  of  dol- 
lars in  renting  tenement  houses,  housing  people  by  the  hun- 
dred and  making  cases  right  along  for  the  doctor,  what  is  the 
doctor  going  to  do?  I  may  do  all  I  can,  I  may  take  care  pri- 
vately; is  there  any  definite  result  that  I  can  see?  None  at  all. 
It  would  be  far  wiser — to  put  it  in  a  different  way — if  men  of 
wealth  were  to  devote  a  certain  portion  of  money  to  the  preven- 
tion of  disease  and  not,  in  years  afterward,  to  the  cure  of  cases 
which  they  or  other  people  have  made.  As  soon  as  people  rec- 
ognize their  duties  toward  their  fellow  man,  tuberculosis  will 
then  be  a  thing  of  the  past. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  249 

BUSINESS  SESSION. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  We  now  come  to  the  matter  of  unfinished 
business.  The  Committee  on  Resolutions  has  presented  a  series 
of  resolutions  which  I  take  the  liberty  of  reading  to  you,  and 
on  which  action  will  be  taken  seriatim.  The  first  is — 

"Inasmuch  as  the  meetings  are  biennial,  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee is  requested  to  continue  the  work  between  sessions  more 
actively  than  has  heretofore  been  done  by  publication  of  pam- 
phlets and  correspondence  with  those  communities  which  may 
seem  to  offer  fields  for  greater  or  better  activity." 

Resolution  adopted. 

Second :  ' '  The  Executive  Committee  is  hereby  directed  to  ap- 
point a  standing  committee  of  three  on  Desertion,  with  a  view 
to  carrying  into  practical  execution  the  suggestions  of  Dr. 
Prankel,  and  to  secure  the  co-operation  therein  of  the  constitu- 
ent organizations." 

Resolution  adopted. 

Third:  "The  Executive  Committee  is  hereby  directed  to  ap- 
point a  standing  committee  of  five  on  Statistics  and  Uniform 
Reports,  with  a  view  to  the  establishment  of  uniform  records  by 
all  of  our  constituent  organizations,  not  only  as  to  relief  but  as  to 
all  branches  of  organized  work  and  their  careful  tabulation  so 
as  to  throw  light  on  Jewish  problems." 

Resolution  adopted. 

Fourth:  "The  Executive  Committee  is  hereby  directed  to 
appoint  again  a  Committee  on  the  Placing-out  of  Children,  with 
a  view  to  the  further  study  and  prosecution  of  this  work,  es- 
pecially as  it  may  be  secured  by  interurban  co-operation." 

Resolution  adopted. 

Fifth:  We  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolu- 
tion offered  from  the  floor:  "Whereas,  it  has  been  reported  to 
members  of  this  Conference  that  unscrupulous  labor  agents  in 
the  large  Eastern  cities  are  sending  Russian  immigrants  to  in- 
terior points  on  false  promises  of  large  pay  and  light  work; 


250  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

Therefore,  be  it  resolved,  That  this  Conference  requests  its 
Executive  Committee  carefully  to  investigate  this  matter,  and. 
if  proved,  to  apply  such  remedial  measures  as  will  tend  to  stop 
such  a  great  wrong  said  to  be  practiced  against  our  co-reli- 
gionists. ' ' 

Resolution  adopted. 

Sixth:  We  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolu- 
tion offered  from  the  floor  by  Mrs.  Landsberg : 

"Resolved,  That  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities 
request  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction  to 
recommend  uniform  legislation  for  all  States  and  Territories, 
providing  that  when  children  are  committed  to  public  institu- 
tions the  parents  shall  be  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  extent 
of  their  ability  toward  the  maintenance  of  such  children. ' ' 

Resolution  adopted. 

Seventh:  "The  Executive  Committee  is,  hereby  empowered, 
if  it  be  deemed  advisable  by  it,  to  establish  a  separate  section 
of  this  Conference  for  superintendents  and  other  executive  em- 
ployees of  relief  associations  with  a  view  to  securing  closer  co- 
operation and  interchange  of  information  and  experience  in  the 
practical  relief  work. ' ' 

Resolution  adopted. 

Eighth:  "The  Executive  Committee  is  hereby  directed  to 
appoint  again  a  Committee  on  Membership." 

MR.  BERNARD  GINSBURG:  I  want  to  say  one  thing  about  the 
Committee  on  Membership.  I  happened  to  have  the  privilege 
of  being  Chairman  of  that  Committee  last  year.  One  thing  I 
found  useful  and  that  is  that  members  themselves  can  aid  the 
Committee.  I  found  in  the  correspondence  I  had  to  undertake 
that  quite  a  few  cities  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  place  I  wanted 
as  members  had  some  persons  there  that  could  have  been  of  some 
assistance  to  the  Committee.  We  were  very  unsuccessful  in 
getting  assistance  in  most  cases.  I  suggest  to  the  members  that 
this  Conference  needs  membership;  we  need  it  more  to-day 
than  we  ever  did  because  of  the  growth  of  the  Industrial  Removal 
Office  work.  We  need  the  assistance  of  every  community  in  the 
country  that  has  a  Jewish  Charity  Organization.  We  especially 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  251 

find,  in  our  experience,  the  smaller  cities  doing  the  dumping  act, 
passing  persons  from  one  town  to  the  other  without  regard  to  the 
size  and  whether  they  are  wanted  or  not.  The  smaller  towns 
ought  to  be  induced  to  join  in  the  co-operation  with  the  larger 
city. 

Resolution  adopted. 

Ninth:  "The  Executive  Committee  is  hereby  directed  to 
print  a  report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Conference,  and  in  de- 
termining the  number  of  copies,  to  take  into  consideration  the 
advisability  of  distributing  the  same  to  non-members  of  com- 
munities as  well  as  to  the  members. ' ' 

Resolution  adopted. 

Tenth:  "The  Executive  Committee,  acting  either  alone  or  in 
conjunction  with  other  organizations  or  individuals,  is  hereby  au- 
thorized to  appoint  a  committee  whose  members,  without  expense 
to  this  Conference,  are  to  visit  Russia  and  such  other  places  as 
may  be  deemed  desirable  for  the  purpose  of  studying  conditions 
surrounding  Jewish  immigration  and  the  causes  influencing  its 
destination.  On  the  report  of  such  Committee  the  Executive 
Committee  is  authorized,  either  alone  or  with  others,  to  call  an 
international  Jewish  Conference  to  consider  the  same,  and  10 
take  such  action  as  may  be  deemed  desirable." 

Resolution  adopted. 

THE  PRESIDENT  :  The  last  resolution  will  be  deferred  at  pres- 
ent. The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Nominations  is  in  order. 

MR.  HERZBERG:  Mr.  President:  Without  making  speeches 
I  desire  to  report,  on  behalf  of  the  Committee  on  Nominations, 
the  following  officers  for  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish 
Charities  for  a  term  of  two  years : 

President,  Nathan  Bijur,  New  York. 

First  Vice-President,  Bernard  Ginsburg,  Detroit. 

Second   Vice-President,  Mrs.  B.  Eckhouse,  Indianapolis. 

Secretary,  Solomon  Lowenstein,  New  York. 

Treasurer,  Bernard  Greensfelder.  St.  Louis. 
The  Executive  Committee  in  addition  to  the  three  former 

Presidents  of  this  Conference :  Dr.  Jacob  Hollander,  Baltimore ; 


252  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

Mat-tin  A.  Marks,  Cleveland;  Mrs.  Benjamin  Andrews,  Boston; 
Samuel   Fleisher,    Philadelphia;   V.   H.   Kriegshaber,   Atlanta. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  You  have  heard  the  report  of  the  Nominat- 
ing Committee,  what  is  your  pleasure? 

MR.  G.  S.  ROSENBERG:  I  move  that  it  be  accepted  as  read, 
Mr.  President,  and  that  the  Secretary  be  directed  to  cast  the 
ballot  for  the  members  of  this  Conference. 

Motion  is  carried  unanimously. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  I  regret  exceedingly  that  I  cannot  intro- 
duce to  you  my  successor,  than  whom  you  could  not  have  chosen 
a  better  or  worthier  representative  of  the  American  Jews  for  the 
high  honor  of  President  of  this  National  Conference.  Permit 
the  chairman  to  say  in  conclusion  that  he  is  deeply  indebted  to 
the  members  of  this  Conference  for  the  totally  undeserved  honor 
that  was  conferred  upon  him,  for  he  had  never  done  such  work 
in  connection  with  American  Jewish  philanthropic  affairs  as 
had  been  done  by  his  two  predecessors  or  as  has  been  done  by  his 
successor.  The  work  of  the  Executive  Committee  has  not  been 
particularly  active,  except  that  of  the  Membership  Committee, 
of  which  the  present  and  the  future  Vice-President  was  chair- 
man. They  have  been  extremely  active  and  successful,  and  the 
highest  credit  is  due  Mr.  Ginsburg,  the  chairman,  and  the  other 
members  of  that  Committee  for  the  work  done  by  them. 

To  the  delegates  for  their  continuous  attendance  at  these  con- 
ferences the  officers  are  extremely  grateful.  They  feel  that  you 
have  approved  of  the  programs  submitted.  They  have  endeav- 
ored to  prepare  a  program  that  would  permit  a  presentation  of 
the  present  problems  of  Jewish  philanthropy  to  you.  They  have 
endeavored  to  call  particularly  to  your  attention  the  problems 
of  preventive  philanthropy,  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much 
during  all  of  the  sessions — particularly  in  the  matter  referred  to 
to-night — the  tuberculosis  question.  But  in  all  these  matters  of 
Jewish  philanthropy  we  must  all  consider  the  great  problems  of 
prevention  in  order  that  our  successors — the  future  generations 
— may  be  spared  the  problems  of  palliation  that  have  troubled 
us  for  so  long.  Most  of  these  problems,  as  the  chairman  said 
before,  are  not  Jewish  problems.  The  one  underlying  question 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  253 

—the  question  that  has  been  uppermost  in  all  of  our  thoughts, 
but  on  which  no  specific  paper  has  been  presented — the  question 
of  immigration,  is  not,  as  the  chairman  said  before,  a  Jewish, 
but  it  is  an  American  problem,  in  which  the  Jews  are  vitally  in- 
terested. It  is  a  problem  that  will  come  before  the  National 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction.  At  the  last  session  of 
this  great  body  in  Portland,  Oregon,  the  sentiment  was  almost 
unanimously  one  way,  and  that  way  the  right  way— 
the  way  that  we  want  to  see  this  country  go — the  same 
way  that  prevailed  in  the  great  immigration  conference  last 
December  in  New  York.  The  question  will  again  come  be- 
fore the  Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections.  I  do  not 
know  in  what  direction  the  report  this  time  will  tend;  it  may 
tend  in  the  other  direction.  It  behooves  us,  not  as  Jews  but  as 
Americans,  to  engage  in  the  discussion  of  this  problem  when- 
ever and  wherever  it  arises.  I  assume  that  we  are  liberal  in  our 
views  on  the  question.  Our  training,  our  guiding  principles, 
both  as  Jews  and  as  Americans,  ought  to  make  us  liberal.  We 
ought  to  be  the  last  ones  to  cry  out  that  the  doors  should  be 
closed.  They  were  open  to  us;  they  were  open  to  our  ancestors. 
We  are  enjoying  those  great  benefits  that  might  have  been  de- 
nied to  each  one  of  us  if  the  policy  that  some  are  attempting  to 
get  Congress  to  enact  had  prevailed  fifty,  sixty,  seventy-five  or  a 
hundred  years  ago.  Don't  let  us,  of  all  American  citizens,  be 
false  to  our  past — false  to  our  guiding  principles  from  any  mo 
tive;  particularly  don't  let  us  be  false  from  motives  of  selfish- 
ness. We  have  a  burden  in  connection  with  this  immigration 
problem — we  have  a  heavy  burden,  but  we  have  a  greater  duty — 
far  greater  than  any  burden  that' will  ever  be  put  upon  us.  Let 
us  face  that  duty  manfully:  let  us  bear  all  burdens 
that  may  justly  be  thrown  upon  us;  but  let  us  see 
to  it  that  the  oppressed  of  all  lands,  politically,  religiously 
or  otherwise,  may  find  peace  and  rest  and  the  opportunity  to 
found  a  home  in  this  free  country  which  we  claim  as  our  own, 
and  let  us  not  forget  that  it  is  not  only  from  their  standpoint 
that  we  ask  this,  but  that  we  ask  it  as  Americans  from 
Americans'  standpoint.  America,  rich  beyond  dreams  in  re- 
sources, is  as  yet  but  thinly  populated.  We  can  support  gen- 
eration upon  generation  of  immigrants  if  they  be  rightly  di- 


254  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

rected  and  if,  when  they  come  here,  those  upon  whom  a  duty 
rests  to  guide  them  will  be  true  in  the  performance  of  that  duty. 
America  needs  the  immigrant  just  as  much  as  the  immigrant 
needs  America.  Don't  let  us  try  to  apologize  for  the  coming  of 
these  people,  but  let  us  stand  forth  manfully  and  say  we  want 
the  immigrants  in  this  country.  There  is  a  place  for  them.  The 
country  needs  them,  and  therefore  let  them  be  ever  welcome4. 
We  cannot  enforce  our  ideas  in  this  respect  unless  we  partici- 
pate in  the  National  Conference  of  Charities.  That  great  or- 
ganization holds  its  opening  session  to-morrow  night;  those  ses- 
sions last  a  week.  Many  of  them,  entirely  apart  from  the  im- 
migration question,  are  of  the  greatest  interest  to  us,  for  most 
of  our  questions  are  not  Jewish — they  belong  to  all.  We  ought 
not  to  separate;  we  ought  to  engage  fully  with  the  others  in  all 
affairs  that  are  common  to  us  all.  We  ought  to  engage  in  the 
work;  we  ought  to  participate  in  the  study  and  in  the  discus- 
sions. The  matter  of  joining  the  Conference  is  very  simple ;  the 
only  fee  is  two  dollars  and  a  half,  unless  you  want  to  become 
supporting  members  at  ten  dollars  a  year.  For  that  you  have 
all  the  privileges  of  the  Conference  and  receive  a  bound  volume 
of  the  proceedings.  It  is  worth  your  while  and  you  will  be  do- 
ing a  good  work  in  addition.  Let  me  say  again  what  I  said  in  the 
opening  address,  that  for  those  of  you  who  want  to  keep  abreast 
of  the  times — in  the  progress  of  the  philanthropic  movements  of 
the  world,  there  is  one  indispensable  magazine — a  magazine  that 
comes  to  me  every  Monday,  and  which  I  endeavor,  before  I  do 
anything  else,  to  read  through  from  beginning  to  end,  and  I  as- 
sure you  no  document  comes  into  my  hands  (and  I  receive  a 
great  many  of  all  kinds)  that  is  so  highly  interesting,  so  ex- 
tremely instructive  as  "Charities  and  The  Commons,"  into 
which  our  "Jewish  Charity"  has  been  merged.  It  costs  only 
$2  a  year;  they  need  larger  subscriptions.  Do  not  fail  to  sub- 
scribe for  yourselves,  and  do  not  fail  when  you  go  to  your  homes 
to  influence  your  friends  to  become  subscribers,  both  for  what 
they  are  going  to  get  out  of  it  and  for  the  good  that  the  in- 
creased subscription  is  going  to  do  the  general  cause.  I  am  told 
the  number  of  May  19  is  going  to  be  a  special  number  on  this, 
our  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities;  for  this  reason  alone  it  de- 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  255 

serves  your  support;  it  deserves  it,  however,  for  much  greater 
and  weightier  reasons. 

And  now  before  putting  the  last  resolution  with  which  only 
the  delegates  from  outside  Philadelphia  have  to  do,  permit  me 
to  express  my  deep  personal  obligations  to  the  Jews  of  Philadel- 
phia for  their  extreme  kindness  and  their  generous  hospitality. 
Let  me  assure  them  that  I  voice  but  the  sentiments  of  all  when 
I  say  that  this  Conference  has  been  most  delightful ;  that  we  have 
enjoyed  ourselves  immensely  in  Philadelphia.  We  go  away 
from  here  with  pleasure  and  with  profit;  our  sojourn  has  been 
in  every  way  a  most  delightful  one. 

The  last  resolution  is: 

"Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Conference  be  and  the 
same  are  hereby  tendered  to  the  local  committees,  the  citizens  of 
Philadelphia,  and  the  officers  of  the  Jewish  institutions,  for 
their  united  efforts  and  warm  hospitality  have  made  our  stay 
among  them  a  source  of  great  pleasure. ' ' 

In  using  the  word  "institutions"  there  are,  of  course,  included 
the  Synagogue,  the  Club,  and  the  other  institutions  that  offered 
us  the  use  of  their  rooms. 

I  call  for  a  rising  vote  of  the  non-residents  of  Philadelphia 
in  favor  of  this  resolution. 

The  resolution  is  unanimously  adopted. 

MR.  MARTIN  MARKS  :  Mr.  Chairman :  I  feel  that  it  would  be 
unjust  to  you  and  to  the  officers  who  have  presided  and  who 
have  conducted  the  affairs  of  tins'  organization  the  last  two 
years — more  especially  to  you — if  there  was  not  some  expres- 
sion from  the  members  of  appreciation  of  your  excellent  ser- 
vices. It  has  been  my  pleasure  to  have  watched  your  career, 
and  I  am  glad  that  the  people  of  the  United  States — the  Jews 
of  the  United  States — have  become  better  acquainted  with  you, 
and  that  you  have  become  a  national  character  among  the  Jews. 
I  say  this  because  I  feel  it  and  mean  it,  and  those  who  know  me 
know  I  never  make  any  remarks  unless  I  do  mean  them.  I  feel 
it  is  right  and  proper  that  we  should  give  our  expression  here  of 
thanks  to  you  by  rising  vote  for  the  excellent  manner  in  which 


256  PROCEEDINGS   OF    THE   FOURTH 

you  have  presided  over  this  Conference  and  for  the  services  that 
you  have  done  in  a  judicial  manner. 
Vote  carried  unanimously. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  The  chairman  expresses  his  gratitude  to  the 
members  of  the  Conference  for  this  additional  honor  conferred 
upon  him,  and  now,  unless  there  is  some  further  business  to  come 
before  the  Conference,  this  Conference  is  hereby  adjourned  with- 
out day. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  257 

APPENDIX  A. 

REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON  MEMBERSHIP. 

To  the  President  and  fellow  members  of  the  National  Conference 
of  Jewish  Charities  in  the  United  States  assembled: 

Your  special  Committee  on  Membership,  appointed  by  the 
president  during  the  past  year,  has  endeavored  to  make  a  thor- 
ough canvass  of  the  entire  country.  The  replies  to  the  first 
circular,  with  an  enclosed  printed  envelope  addressed  to  the 
chairman,  were  very  meager.  It  was  found  necessary  to  repeat 
the  sending  out  of  circulars,  and  in  the  majority  of  the  cases  a 
personal  communication  was  also  sent  asking  for  the  courtesy 
of  some  reply.  The  answers  showed  such  a  painful  lack  of  knowl- 
edge as  to  the  intents  and  purposes  of  this  organization  that  a 
large  correspondence  had  to  be  kept  up  to  explain  in  detail  why 
the  National  Conference  is  an  exceedingly  important  organiza- 
tion. The  printed  reports  of  our  last  Conference  were  sent  with 
our  later  correspondence  and  proved  very  effective  literature.  As 
a  result  we  take  great  pleasure  in  reporting  twenty-five  new 
members : 

National  Council  of  Jewish  Women. 

Altoona,  Pa United  Hebrew  Charities. 

Bloomington,  111 Jewish  Ladies'  Aid  Society. 

Chicago,  111 Associated  Jewish  Charities. 

Colorado  Springs,  Colo Hebrew  Benevolent  Society. 

Cumberland,  Md Beer  Chayim  Congregation. 

Dayton,  Ohio Dayton  Provident  Union. 

El  Paso,  Texas Mt.  Sinai  Congregation. 

Fort  Wayne,  Ind Hebrew  Relief  Union. 

C4alveston,  Texas Hebrew  Benevolent  Society. 

Ithaca,  N.  Y J.  Rothschild. 

Hot  Springs,  Ark Hot  Springs  Relief  Society. 

Lincoln,  Neb Jewish  Ladies'  Aid  Society. 

Memphis,  Tenn Hebrew  Ladies'  Relief  Assn. 

Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y Ladies'  Hebrew  Ben.  Society. 

Norfolk,  Va Ladies'  Hebrew  Ben.  Society. 

Phoenix,  Ariz S.  Oberf elder. 


258 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 


Pine  Bluff,  Ark 

Portsmouth,  Ohio 

Braddock,  Pa 

Reading,  Pa 

Waco,  Texas 

Youngstown,  Ohio 

Chicago,  111 

Philadelphia,  Pa 

The  following  cities  still 
and  may  join : 

Stockton,  Cal. 

Jacksonvile,  Fla. 

Augusta,  Ga. 

Columbus,  Ga. 

Springfield,  Mass. 

Worcester,  Mass. 

Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

Kalamazoo,  Mich. 
Correspondence  was  also 
without  any  results : 

ALABAMA. 

Demopolis. 

Eufaula. 

Selma. 

ARIZONA. 
Solomonville. 
Temple. 
Tucson. 

ARKANSAS. 

Helena. 

COLORADO. 

Leadville. 
Pueblo. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Hartford. 

FLORIDA. 

Pensacola. 

Tallahassee. 

Tampa. 


. . .  .Hebrew  Relief  Association. 

Ladies'  Aid  Society. 

.  .  .  .  Braddock  Lodge,  516,  I.O.B.B. 
. . .  .Ladies'  Hebrew  Aid  Society. 
. . .  .Hebrew  Benevolent  Society. 
.  . .  .Youngstown  Hebrew  Char.  Sec. 

Bureau  of  Personal  Service. 

. . .  .Jewish  Hospital. 

have  the  question  under  advisement 

Meridian,  Miss. 
Elmira,  N.  Y. 
Akron,  Ohio. 
Washington,  Pa. 
Sumter,  South  Carolina. 
Ogden,  Utah. 
Winnipeg,  Manitoba. 

had  with  the  following  organizations 

GEORGIA. 
Albany. 
Athens. 
Macon. 

ILLINOIS. 
Quincy. 
Rock  Island. 
Springfield. 

INDIANA. 

Goshen. 
South  Bend. 
Wabash. 

IOWA. 

Davenport. 
Sioux  City. 

KENTUCKY. 

Paducah. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES. 


259 


LOUISIANA. 

Alexandria. 
Lafayette. 
Baton  Rouge. 
Lake  Charles. 
Morgan  City. 
Shreveport. 

MARYLAND. 

Hagerstown. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Fall  River. 
Lawrence. 
Lynn. 
Pittsfield. 

MISSISSIPPI. 
Canton. 
Jackson. 
Port  Gibson. 

MICHIGAN. 

Battle  Creek. 

Hancock. 

Jackson. 

Lansing. 

Muskegon. 

Traverse  City. 

MINNESOTA. 

Duluth. 

MONTANA. 

Helena. 

NEBRASKA. 

Omaha. 

NEW   JERSEY. 

New  Brunswick. 

NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 

Manchester. 

NEW  MEXICO. 

Las  Vegas. 


NEW  YORK. 

Brooklyn. 

Glovers  ville. 

Poughkeepsie. 

Schenectady. 

Troy. 

Utica. 

Yonkers. 

NORTH  DAKOTA. 

Fargo. 

Grand  Forks. 
OHIO. 
Sandusky. 

OKLAHOMA. 

Oklahoma  City. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Beaver  Falls. 

Connellsville. 

Easton. 

Erie. 

Greensburg. 

Johnstown. 

McKeesport. 

Meadville. 

Pottsville. 

Titusville. 

Uniontown. 

Williamsport. 

York. 

RHODE   ISLAND. 

Providence. 
Newport. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Columbia. 
Orangeburg. 

SOUTH  DAKOTA. 

Deadwood. 


260  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    FOURTH 

TEXAS.  WISCONSIN. 

Marshall.  Appleton. 

Texarkana.  Eau  Claire. 

VIRGINIA.  Green  Bay. 

Petersburg.  LaCrosse. 

WEST  VIRGINIA.  Merrill. 

Charleston.  Racine. 

Hnntington.  Waukesha. 

Wausau. 

We  can  best  summarize  our  correspondence  with  the  following 
recommendations : 

1.  The   Committee  on  Membership  should  be  made  a  per- 
manent one  and  the  work  should  be  kept  up  aggressively,  for  the 
larger  our  membership  the  more  power  we  have  for  effective  work 
and  all  will  gain  by  the  interchange  of  views  and  ideas.     Our 
country  is  growing,  the  number  of  immigrants  is  increasing,  and 
all  communities  must  be  enlisted  to  aid  in  problems  that  are  no 
longer  local. 

2.  There  should  be  a  Committee  on  Propaganda,  whose  pur- . 
pose  should  be  educational,  not  conflicting  with  the  Committee  on 
Membership.   There  is  such  a  lack  of  knowledge  in  many  of  our 
cities  on  the  modern  methods  of  charity  work  that  one  is  almost 
tempted  to  suggest  that  tracts  on  charity  questions  by  specialists 
ought  to  be  printed  and  distributed  broadcast  throughout  the 
land.    If  this  committee  could  arrange  so  that  the  smaller  cities 
could  have  the  aid  and  advice  of  the  experienced  workers  in  the 
larger  cities  neighboring  to  them,  it  would  do  much  to  bring 
about  results  which  many  of  our  smaller  communities  are  anxious 
to  secure.    There  is  a  large  field  for  this  committee. 

3.  A  much  larger  number  of  our  reports  should  be  printed 
and  sent  to  all  the  cities  where  there  are  Jewish  charity  organiza- 
tions of  any  kind,  whether  they  are  members  of  the  Conference 
or  not. 

4.  The  recommendation  made  by  our  president  that  the  con- 
stituent societies  of  federated  organizations  should  be  members, 
even  where  the  federated  society  is  now  a  member,  but  the  dues 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  261 

of  these  members  be  not  as  large  as  the  present  regular  fees ;  in 
this  way  we  have  the  co-operation  and  interest  of  the  individual 
organizations  as  well  as  the  federated  societies. 

In  conclusion  we  wish  to  thank  all  who  have  aided  us  in  our 
work  either  by  personal  attention  or  otherwise. 

Kespectfully  submitted, 

BERNARD  GINSBURG,  Chairman. 
BORIS  BOGEN. 
I.  L.  LEUCHT. 


262  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

APPENDIX  B. 

REPORT    CONCERNING    SUFFERING    JEWS    IN    SAN 
FRANCISCO   EARTHQUAKE   AND   FIRE. 

Philadelphia,  May  6th,  1906. 

In  response  to  appeals  for  aid,  received  from  representatives 
of  the  Jewish  community  of  San  Francisco,  to  assist  in  the  im- 
mediate relief  of  destitution  caused  by  the  earthquake  and  fire 
in  that  city  and  to  provide  means  for  the  rehabilitation  of  indi- 
viduals and  families  who  had  lost  all  their  means  of  livelihood 
through  the  calamity,  a  meeting  was  called  by  President  Julian 
W.  Mack,  of  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities  at  th>3 
Hotel  Bellevue-Stratford,  Philadelphia,  on  Sunday  morning. 
May  6th,  1906. 

There  were  present  a  large  number  of  persons  prominently 
connected  with  the  charitable  organizations  of  the  leading  cities 
of  the  country,  and  after  a  full  discussion  it  was  resolved  that 
Dr.  Lee  K.  Frankel  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York 
City,  and  Dr.  J.  L.  Magnes,  Rabbi-elect  of  Temple  Eananu-El  of 
New  York,  be  appointed  a  Committee  of  the  National  Conference 
of  Jewish  Charities  to  proceed  to  San  Francisco  to  investigate 
the  conditions  existing  there,  and  after  such  investigation  to 
report  to  the  President  of  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish 
Charities  concerning  the  advisability  of  issuing  a  general  appeal 
to  the  Jews  of  the  United  States  for  the  relief  of  the  Jewish 
community  of  San  Francisco.  The  Committee  at  once  went  to 
San  Francisco  and  after  full  investigation  submitted  the  follow- 
ing report : 

REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  TO  INQUIRE  INTO  THE 

CONDITION    OF    THE    JEWISH    SUFFERERS 

FROM  THE  SAN  FRANCISCO  EARTHQUAKE. 

Mr.  Nathan  Bijur,  President  National  Conference  of  Jewish 
Charities. 

SIR  :  The  undersigned  beg  to  present  herewith  their  report 
as  the  Committee  appointed  by  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities  on  May  6th,  1906, 
to  ascertain  the  requirements  of  the  Jewish  community  of  San 
Francisco,  as  a  result  of  the  earthquake  which  visited  that  city 
on  April  18th,  1906. 

This  Committee  was  appointed  under  the  following  resolu- 
tion adopted  by  the  Executive  Committee  on  the  above  mentioned 
date: 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OP    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  263 

"RESOLVED,  That  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  National 
Conference  of  Jewish  Charities  be  authorized  to  ascertain  the 
requirements  of  the  Jewish  community  of  San  Francisco,  both  as 
to  its  general  future  needs  and  as  to  the  work  of  re-construction 
and  support  of  institutions,  and  when  ascertained,  that  the 
National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities  submit  the  facts  to  rep- 
resentatives of  the  entire  Jewish  community  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  the  necessary  funds,  should  funds  be  required." 

In  pursuance  of  this  resolution,  we  left  New  York  on  Mon- 
day, May  7th,  1906,  arriving  in  Oakland  on  Friday,  May  lltli,. 
1906.  On  the  same  evening,  we  had  an  interview  with  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Jacob  Voorsanger  of  San  Francisco.  Among  other  things,  Dr. 
Voorsanger  expressed  his  opinion  that  the  officers  of  the  official 
Jewish  Relief  Committee  of  San  Francisco  had  as  yet  been  unable 
to  gather  any  statistical  information  regarding  the  damage  which 
had  been  incurred  by  the  Jewish  community  of  that  city  or  of 
the  number  of  families  that  had  been  rendered  homeless.  Dr. 
Voorsanger  was,  however,  of  the  opinion  that  there  were  at  least 
10,000  homeless  Jews  in  San  Francisco  and  that  a  relief  fund  of 
at  least  $30,000  to  $40.000  would  have  to  be  raised  from  the  Jews 
of  the  United  States. 

On  Saturday  morning,  May  12th,  in  company  with  Dr.  Ed- 
ward T.  Devine  of  the  National  Red  Cross,  and  Dr.  Voorsanger. 
we  visited  the  various  camps  in  San  Franscisco.  At  the  Camp  at 
Bay  and  Van  Ness  Avenue,  there  were  no  Jews.  At  Camp  No.  2 
in  Harrison  Square  we  found  5  families  of  Jews.  In  the  Camp 
at  San  Bruno  Road,  approximately  600  Jews  were  being  fed.  At 
the  Camp  in  Golden  Gate  Park.Miss  Nettie  Pawson,  the  manager, 
estimated  that  she  had  approximately  400  Jews  in  charge.  In- 
spection on  our  part  of  the  various  tents  and  shacks  in  these 
camps  confirmed  these  figures. 

In  the  afternoon  we  had  a  conference  with  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Jewish  Relief  Committee,  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Jewish  Board  of  Relief,  the  Independent  Order 
B  'nai  Brith,  and  others.  At  this  meeting,  we  reported  that  one  of 
us  (Dr.  Frankel)  had  interviewed  Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine,  the 
Special  Representative  of  the  National  Red  Cross,  and  had  ob- 
tained from  him  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  in  his  opinion  the 
Finance  Committee  of  the  Relief  and  Red  Cross  Funds  would 
ultimately  deem  it  necessary  to  appropriate  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  Relief  and  Red  Cross  Funds  for  rc-habilitation  pur- 
poses, along  non-sectarian  lines,  and  that  therefore  there  would 
probably  be  no  need  for  a  special  Jewish  Fund  for  purposes  of  re- 
habilitation. We  informed  the  Committee  that  from  the  in- 
spection of  the  camps  which  Are  had  made  we  were  of  the  opinion 


264  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    FOURTH 

that  there  was  no  need  of  a  special  fund  for  the  immediate  relief 
of  Jewish  sufferers.  This  was  conceded  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee. 

The  question  of  support  for  communal  institutions  was  next 
considered.  It  was  held  by  the  members  of  the  Committee  that 
the  Orphan  Asylum,  the  Old  Folks'  Home  and  Mt.  Zion  Hospital 
required  no  outside  support.  The  various  relief  societies,  com- 
prised in  the  Hebrew  Board  of  Relief,  had  expended  in  the  last 
year  about  $40,000.  The  Committee  was  of  the  opinion : 

1.  That  the  annual  income  would  be  reduced  75  per  cent. 

2.  That  the  amount  needed  for  the  coming  year  for  relief 
purposes  would  be  at  least  double. 

3.  That  the  reserve  funds  of  the  various  relief  societies 
would  be  available  at  once  and  could  be  applied  for  relief  pur- 
poses. 

In  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Albert  Meyer,  the  Treasurer,  these 
funds  amounted  to  about  $90,000.  The  Committee  was  not 
agreed,  in  view  of  the  statement  and  facts  presented,  whether  a 
general  appeal  to  the  Jews  of  the  United  States  should  be  made, 
and  finally  adjourned,  after  having  adopted  the  following  reso- 
lutions : 

"RESOLVED,  That  this  Committee  communicate  by  telegram 
with  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York,  requesting  them 
to  permit  Dr.  Lee  K.  Frankel  to  remain  in  this  city  and  to  assist 
this  Committee  in  its  Avork  of  reorganization." 

"FURTHERMORE  RESOLVED,  That  Drs.  Frankel  and  Magnes 
be  requested  to  procure  more  definite  information  than  they  now 
possess,  as  to  what  disposition  will  be  made  of  the  Relief  and  Red 
Cross  Funds  in  the  matter  of  re-habilitation. 

In  order  to  obtain  more  information  respecting  the  condition 
of  Jews  in  the  various  camps,  one  of  us  (Dr.  Magnes)  visited 
the  various  camps  in  Oakland  on  Sunday,  May  13th,  1906,  and 
from  information  which  he  had  gathered,  was  of  the  opinion  that 
about  200  Jewish  families,  refugees  from  south  of  Market  Street. 
San  Francisco,  were  housed  in  Oakland  and  its  environs.  Tem- 
porary provision  for  these  was  being  made  by  the  Relief  and  Red 
Cross  Funds  and  by  the  local  Jewish  community. 

The  other  (Dr.  Frankel)  in  company  with  Dr.  Devine,  visited 
the  Camp  in  San  Bruno  Park,  near  the  town  of  San  Mateo,  and 
the  towns  of  Santa  Clara,  Palo  Alto,  Redwood  City  and  San  Jose. 
In  none  of  these  places  could  any  number  of  Jewish  sufferers  be 
found. 

On  Monday,  May  14th,  we  conferred  with  various  members 
of  the  Hebrew  Board  of  Relief  and  other  representatives  of  the 
community.  Mr.  Ascheim,  Grand  Secretary  of  District  No.  4. 


NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    OF    JEWISH    CHARITIES.  265 

I.  0.  B.  B.,  informed  us  that  $14,000  had  been  received  from 
various  lodges  throughout  the  country,  for  relief  of  the  members 
of  the  Order.  In  an  interview  with  Dr.  M.  S.  Levy,  of  the  Geary 
Street  Temple,  we  were  informed  that  his  synagogue,  which  was 
almost  completed,  was  destroyed  by  the  earthquake  with  a  loss 
of  $60,000.  He  was  of  the  opinion,  as  was  every  one,  that  the 
time  was  not  appropriate  to  ask  aid  for  synagogues  destroyed. 
On  the  basis  of  300  Jewish  interments  during  the  year,  Dr.  Levy 
estimated  the  Jewish  population  of  San  Francisco  to  have  been 
20,000,  of  whom  no  less  than  5,000  lived  south  of  Market  Street, 
where  the  more  recent  immigrants  had  settled.  This  estimate 
was  at  variance  with  those  usually  made,  which  range  up  to 
35,000  Jews  living  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco  and  up  to  12,000 
living  in  the  section  south  of  Market  Street. 

In  the  afternoon  we  interviewed  Mr.  P.  N.  Lilienthal,  of 
the  Anglo-California  Bank,  who  was  of  the  opinion  that  no 
special  fund  for  the  relief  and  rehabilitation  of  Jews  was  needed. 
Mr.  Lilienthal  was  of  the  impression  that  opportunities  for  em- 
ployment were  as  good  for  Jews  as  they  were  for  others,  and 
that  the  general  fund  would  be  distributed  equitably. 

Further  inspection  of  the  camps  in  the  Protrero  Road  and 
other  places  on  Tuesday  morning,  May  15th,  confirmed  our  origi- 
nal impression  that  no  special  immediate  relief  fund  for  Jews 
was  needed. 

In  the  afternoon  we  again  met  with  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Jewish  Relief  Committee,  at  which  one  of  us  (Dr.  Frankel) 
presented  a  letter  from  Dr.  Devine,  the  special  representative  of 
the  National  Red  Cross,  giving  the  result  of  a  conference  which 
he  had  had  with  Mr.  James  D.  Phelan,  Chairman  of  the  Finance 
Committee  of  the  Relief  and  Red  Cross  Funds. 

After  this  letter  was  read,  it  was  agreed  by  the  Executive 
Committee  that  the  problem  of  the  support  of  the  relief  societies 
would  be  met  by  using  the  reserve  funds  of  the  various  societies, 
and  by  increased  subscriptions,  if  necessary,  from  the  wealthier 
element  of  the  community.  Resolutions  to  this  effect  were 
adopted. 

Finally,  we  were  instructed  to  telegraph  to  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  National  Conference  of  Jewish  Charities  that 
after  careful  consultation  and  consideration  of  the  situation,  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Jewish  Relief  Committee  had  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  no  immediate  appeal  for  funds  in  behalf 
of  the  Jewish  sufferers  in  San  Francisco  was  necessary. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

LEE  K.  FRANKEL. 
J.  LEON  MAGNES. 


A     000  064  984     8 


